Arizona governor halts bill signing over funding dispute

PHOENIX (AP) — Democratic Gov. Katie Hobbs on Thursday vowed to veto all bills not already on her desk amid a standoff with the Republican-controlled Legislature over funding for a state agency that provides services for some of Arizona's most vulnerable residents.

Hobbs is demanding that lawmakers find a bipartisan compromise that would guarantee funding through the end of the fiscal year for the state's Division of Developmental Disabilities, which supports close to 60,000 people with autism, cerebral palsy, epilepsy, Down syndrome and other cognitive and intellectual disabilities.

Before signing off on a funding package, Republicans want to establish guardrails for the program, such as reducing the number of paid hours that parents who care for their children with disabilities can receive per week. Democrats want to approve funding first and discuss reforms later.

The strategy of holding back on signing bills isn't new. Hobbs' Republican predecessors also withheld their signatures over budget disputes.

Republicans became frustrated after learning that Hobbs was requesting about $13 million more in supplemental funding for the Division of Developmental Disabilities, despite having already released her executive budget proposal.

Republicans contend that Hobbs has mismanaged the funds — going so far as to convene an ad hoc committee earlier this month to discuss “executive budget mismanagement.” Rep. David Livingston, chair of the House Appropriations Committee, said during a hearing earlier this week that it was unacceptable for programs within the division to be shut down in early May because of a lack of funding.

House Speaker Steve Montenegro in a statement called the governor's veto threat “political blackmail.”

Hobbs, who is up for reelection in 2026, claims that Republicans are leveraging the crisis for “political warfare.” The governor is willing to even veto legislation she supports so long as a bipartisan compromise is not reached, said her spokesperson Christian Slater.

“We have been waiting for far too long," Slater said in an interview. “Families are at the brink.”

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Govindarao covers Arizona government and politics for The Associated Press, with a focus on women in state government. She is based in Phoenix.

FILE - Arizona Democratic Gov. Katie Hobbs, center, applauds for those affected by the Los Angeles area wildfires as she gives the State of the State address in the House of Representatives at the Capitol with Speaker of the House Rep. Steve Montenegro, R-Litchfield Park, left, and Senate President Warren Petersen, R-Gilbert, flanking the governor on Jan. 13, 2025, in Phoenix. (AP Photo/Ross D. Franklin, File)

WARSAW, Poland (AP) — A former Polish justice minister who faces prosecution in his homeland over alleged abuse of power said Monday that he has been granted asylum in Hungary.

Zbigniew Ziobro was a key figure in the government led by the nationalist conservative Law and Justice party that ran Poland between 2015 and 2023. That administration established political control over key judicial institutions by stacking higher courts with friendly judges and punishing its critics with disciplinary action or assignments to far-away locations.

Current Prime Minister Donald Tusk’s government came to power more than two years ago with ambitions to roll back the changes, but efforts to undo them have been blocked by two successive presidents aligned with the national right.

In October, prosecutors requested the lifting of Ziobro's parliamentary immunity to press charges against him. They allege among other things that Ziobro misused a fund for victims of violence, including for the purchase of Israeli Pegasus surveillance software.

Tusk’s party says Law and Justice used Pegasus to spy illegally on political opponents while in power. Ziobro says he acted lawfully.

Hungary, led by nationalist Prime Minister Viktor Orbán, has hosted several politicians close to Law and Justice while Polish authorities were seeking them.

In a lengthy post on X Monday, Ziobro wrote that he had “decided to accept the asylum granted to me by the government of Hungary due to the political persecution in Poland.”

“I have decided to remain abroad until genuine guarantees of the rule of law are restored in Poland,” he said. “I believe that instead of acquiescing to being silenced and subjected to a torrent of lies — which I would have no opportunity to refute — I can do more by fighting the mounting lawlessness in Poland.”

Hungarian Foreign Minister Péter Szijjártó said in Budapest on Monday that Hungarian authorities have granted asylum to “several” individuals who would face political persecution in Poland, according to his ministry. He declined to specify their names.

In an English-language post on X, Tusk wrote that “the former Minister of Justice(!), Mr. Ziobro, who was the mastermind of the political corruption system, has asked the government of Victor Orbán for political asylum.”

“A logical choice,” he added.

FILE - The leader of the Polish junior coalition partners Zbigniew Ziobro, speaks to reporters alongside in Warsaw, Poland, Saturday, Sept. 26, 2020. (AP Photo/Czarek Sokolowski, file)