Last Wednesday the Arizona Senate passed the budget proposal that would cut funding of health care, education and other state services. The Republicans have the majority and this is reflected in the 21-9 vote with all the Republicans voting in favor of the proposal.

Republican-Budget-Proposal There were a few Republican Senators that voted against individual bills while all the Democrats have voted against all the bills. The Democrats stated that the cuts go too far and if the budget is signed then Arizona will be in a trouble.

Passage of the budget cut proposal will now be sent to the House, which is also controlled by the Republicans who are more likely to vote for it as well. The plan is somewhat different from Governor Jan Brewer’s budget proposal.

The Senate proposed $8.2 billion budget proposal includes $1.5 billion in cuts, which is just half of what the governor proposed last January. The proposed plan included Governor Brewer’s proposal to take out Medicaid eligibility for at least 250,000 people, who are low-income childless adults. This would make up around one-fifth of the enrolment of the Arizona Health Care Containment System.

Also included plan are cuts are the payment rates to providers, new tuition increases for university students and bigger class sizes in K-12 schools in Arizona.