Arizona Legislature passes state budget and adjourns for the 2024 session

June 25, 2024
State Relations

Late on June 15, the Legislature passed the fiscal year 2025 state budget and adjourned sine die. The budget bills passed with bi-partisan support. Many Democrats, however, did not support the measure, citing frustration with the negotiation process and the budget cuts made to education and human service programs. 

The budget totals just over $16 billion, a significant reduction from last year.  The budget addresses the estimated $1.3 billion shortfall through a mix of cuts, funding shifts and other policy changes.

 Unfortunately, the state universities were forced to absorb reductions to their base operating budgets, as well as cuts to programs that directly support students. Below is the breakdown of the FY25 budget impact to the universities:  

  1. A 3.45% cut to each of the three universities. The U of A’s reduction to this base is approximately $8 million (Main Campus reduction is $6.56 million and University of Arizona Health Sciences reduction is $1.47 million).  
  2. Discontinues $20 million systemwide in one-time funding for the Promise Program, a guaranteed scholarship program for eligible Arizona residents that covers tuition and fees at Arizona's public universities. This will result in a $4 million hit that the University must find elsewhere to cover this mandate. 
  3. Discontinues $14 million in one-time funding for the Arizona Teachers Academy. This will result in the U of A reducing enrollment in the ATA graduate program. 
  4. Removes the FY23 ABOR appropriation for the Camp Verde meat lab. The Arizona Board of Regents was required to provide this funding to the U of A to contract with a third-party to build a meat lab in Camp Verde. This process had not yet begun.

Several other state agencies also saw a 3.45% cut to their operating budget, as well as a total of $695 million in fund sweeps – significantly more than the $300 million Gov. Hobbs originally proposed.

The governor signed the budget on June 18. 

The State Relations team will provide a full legislative summary in the next few weeks that will include all bills signed into law that impact universities.