Phoenix Sues Arizona Over State Budget Bill

PHOENIX, AZ — The city filed a suit against the state of Arizona Tuesday, claiming that provisions in the state budget bill violate Arizona's Constitution.

The suit is focused on the "single subject rule," according to a news release from the city. This means that per the state Constitution, substantive legislation has to be about one subject at a time and budget bills have to be about the budget.

“The city of Phoenix is filing this lawsuit to ensure the State Legislature follows our Arizona Constitution," said Mayor Kate Gallego in the statement. "This year's budget illegally limits cities' abilities to serve our communities and undermines the legislative process."

The city alleges that the Legislature violated the state constitution with HB2893, a budget reconciliation bill which the city says, "included substantive legislative provisions that have nothing to do with spending or with each other."

“By stuffing so many different topics and so much substantive legislation into a bill that's supposed to simply enact parts of the budget, the Legislature made sure that none of these important topics got their own individual votes," said Jean-Jacques Cabou of the law firm Perkins Coie, which filed the suit on behalf of the city.

The city says that a provision in this bill will significantly impact how Phoenix oversees its Police department.

The provision was created to “nullify an office created" for the purpose of providing, "for independent civilian led review of the Phoenix Police Department," the city claimed.

The state bill was passed a month after the Phoenix City Council authorized the creation of the Office of Accountability and Transparency to supervise the Phoenix Police Department.

“Whatever you think about the merits of the substantive items in the bill the City is challenging, Arizonans of all stripes should, and do, agree that the Legislature has to follow the Constitution just as everyone else does," Cabou said in the news release. “The City's suit asks the Court to enforce these rules in the Constitution."