Abstract

The Fiscal Year 2016 budget process began with a new Republican Governor Doug Ducey. He and Republican leadership coalesced relatively quickly on a budget that was promoted as being able to balance the state budget and uphold Arizona’s values. Closer scrutiny instead reveals an austerity budget that made severe cuts to higher education and significant weaknesses in meeting legal K-12 funding levels, cutting Medicaid payments to hospitals, and underfunding or curtailing programs for lower income Arizonans.