PHOENIX — Gov. Katie Hobbs is criticizing state lawmakers from both parties who are taking a week off in the middle of the annual legislative session to go to Israel.
“We have important issues in front of us, including the need to pass a balanced budget,’’ she said Monday. “It’s certainly not something I’ve seen in state government, including all my years in the state Legislature.’’ She was first elected to the Legislature in 2010.
But the idea that having 17 lawmakers out of town is slowing up budget negotiations drew derision from House Speaker Ben Toma, who is one of those going on the trip.
“They weren’t ready to talk to us,’’ the Peoria Republican said Friday, referring to the Governor’s Office, when the issue first arose. “They’ve wanted more time.’’
Hobbs acknowledged she isn’t actively negotiating with legislative leaders about how to resolve what could be a nearly $2 billion shortfall for both the remainder of this fiscal year and the new one that begins July 1.
“ ‘Negotiating’ is a premature word,’’ the Democratic governor said. “We are having discussions at a staff level right now.’’
Is she negotiating to negotiate, then? “I mean, we’re getting there,” Hobbs responded to that question.
She said the trip “is certainly putting a damper on things.’’
But Toma said his presence isn’t needed at this stage of the process.
“We’ve got plenty of line items we can negotiate,’’ he said, meaning allocations for specific projects. He said staff and the lawmakers remaining in the state are “empowered to do it.’’
“Even if I’m physically not here, if they’re somehow ready to have substantive conversations there, we’re ready to go,’’ Toma said. “There’s nothing to slow us down.’’
Hobbs did not mention that she just returned from a multi-day trip to Mexico to promote international trade. There was no immediate response from her press aide, Christian Slater, about why it was OK for her to be out of state — and out of the country — while she says there are “important issues’’ that need attention.
There also was no comment from Rep. Alma Hernandez, the Tucson Democrat who worked with itrek, a New York-based nonprofit, to organize the trip to Israel.
Hernandez has defended the trip and the timing, saying it is important to educate state lawmakers about issues in Israel, particularly in the wake of the Oct. 7 attacks by Hamas. She said the trip relates directly to legislation here, including her efforts to include requirements for Holocaust education in public schools.
Toma press aide Andrew Wilder said there’s another reason for the 17 lawmakers from both parties to travel to Israel now.
“By sending a delegation, Arizona reaffirms its support for our friend and ally Israel,’’ he said.
But Toma, a Republican candidate for Congress, also made it about politics, saying that support is “something that Democratic Party leaders have demonstrated much ambivalence toward recently.’’
The trip itself became a political issue because the House had asked permission from the Senate to not meet for a week. That request came because the Arizona Constitution says one chamber cannot be gone for more than three days during a legislative session without the consent of the other.
But senators voted 24-4 to deny it.
Toma said that isn’t going to keep him and other lawmakers home. He said there is a procedure where the speaker pro-tem, in his absence, can gavel the House into session, note there is not a quorum, and gavel it closed, meeting the constitutional requirement.
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