Journalists’ Roundtable: State budget passes, Hobbs’ veto record and more

It’s Friday, which means it is time for another edition of Journalists’ Roundtable. This week, “Arizona Horizon” host Ted Simons was joined by Dennis Welch of AZFamily.com, Jim Small of Arizona Mirror and Wayne Schutsky of KJZZ.

This week’s topics:
• State budget bipartisan agreement passes House and Senate, heading to Governor Katie Hobbs’ desk
• Senate President Warren Petersen vs. Caucus
• Governor Hobbs sets veto record
• Rep. Stanton vs. Kari Lake in congressional hearing


On state budget passing legislature:

Jim Small: “Essentially, the House took up the Senate budget that had already been passed, made a couple of small changes and negotiated a couple of really minor changes to sorta save face, to get this thing out there, and then they passed that last night. And today the Senate, Friday morning, picked it up, passed it, and the Governor is now gonna sign it.”

Dennis Welch: “The animosity between republicans in the House and the Senate, maybe as much as the animosity between republican lawmakers and the Governor at this point.”

Wayne Schutsky: “The Governor got a lot of wins in this budget as well. Everyone kind of wanted raises for DPS (Department of Public Safety) officers, she got that. She got money to shrink the waitlist for childcare assistance, which was a huge thing for her.”


On Governor Hobbs setting new veto record

Jim Small: “It’s amazing how much you can pad your stats when you veto two budgets on the same day. I mean it was what, 28 bills I think that got vetoed in one day?”

Wayne Schutsky: “I asked the Governor about this as she was sneaking up on it, because it hit me the same way, and we ended up doing a story about this, and she basically said well you’ll have to ask them [the legislature] why they keep sending me the same stuff I’ve vetoed before, and by and large she’s true. Now, has every bill she vetoed been vetoed before? No but there’s a lot of stuff, we’re talking about anti-trans legislation and that kinda thing, that she vetoed in her first year.”

Dennis Welch:  “If you’re sending back the stuff that’s already been vetoed prior, and you’re not making any changes or attempting to change that, what do you think is gonna happen?”