The Arizona legislature has acted to prevent the Department of Child Safety (DCS) from running out of funds, which would have left foster children without group home placements. According to ABC15, state lawmakers approved a budget transfer on Thursday to cover a shortfall in the agency's funding for children in group homes. The shortfall was set to affect services starting Monday. The Joint Legislative Budget Committee (JLBC) okayed DCS to cover the shortfall through the end of the fiscal year using surpluses from other parts of its budget. Rep. David Livingston, who chairs the JLBC, expressed that it was frustrating to have to fix issues not caused by lawmakers, "I truly believe in my heart that the governor's executive staff made tremendous mistakes, and they should have come to us sooner, and they should have had private meetings with us so we didn’t publicly have to do this," he told ABC15.

The budget fix includes both a previously requested  $6.5 million transfer, and an additional $10 million from other DCS programs, which would keep the program funded until mid-June. Jointly, these transfers will ensure the congregate care program's solvency, as it was set to exhaust its financial resources next week. As noted by KJZZ, the bipartisan approval came after lawmakers had spent over an hour debating the causes of the budget shortfall.

Legislators and Gov. Katie Hobbs' administration have been at odds over whether the funding issue is due to unsound financial management or simply a routine budget challenge. Republicans have accused the governor of not addressing the shortfall sooner despite early warnings that additional funding was necessary. Gov. Hobbs has defended her administration's actions, stating in a statement, "As a social worker who began my career working with homeless youth, I will do everything in my power to protect children in foster care from shameful political stunts."

While DCS funding has been a point of contention, another imminent fiscal challenge looms with the Department of Economic Security (DES), specifically its Division of Developmental Disabilities (DDD), which is predicted to run out of money by May. This issue is significantly more financially demanding, with a projected $122 million deficit. Livingston has indicated that any long-term solution for the DDD must include reforms to ensure sustainability. "It’s about time Republican lawmakers get their act together and take immediate action to pass a clean DDD supplemental instead of wasting time with even more unnecessary committees," Gov. Hobbs said, in a sentiment implying that the resolution for DCS may serve as a stepping stone to more comprehensive budget agreements.