10 June 19th - June 25st, 2025 phoenixnewtimes.com PHOENIX NEW TIMES | NEWS | FEATURE | FOOD & DRINK | ARTS & CULTURE | MUSIC | CONCERTS | CANNABIS | workers whose former employers have kept their personal property and people dealing with wage garnishment and car repossession. Losing the main source of funding for civil legal aid would be “definitely a code- red emergency,” Schaffer said, one that “would mean essentially the end of our civil legal aid system as we know it.” Groninger called it “a shock to the system.” “We’re not ready for this,” he said. “We’re not prepared.” One solution is obvious: The state of Arizona could pick up the slack that the federal government is eager to loosen. Indeed, one product of Timmer’s all-hands meeting was a proposal to allocate $10 million in the next state budget to backfill these programs. But in Arizona, hammering out the budget is anything but simple. A budget solution? The budget proposal is the project of Ortiz and fellow Democratic state Sen. Lauren Kuby, both of whom attended Timmer’s meeting. Time is of the essence. By law, Arizona is supposed to hammer out a budget by June 30 for the next fiscal year. With a Democratic governor and a Republican-controlled legislature, that process “can be very twisted and happen very quickly,” Kuby said. Budget negotia- tions between Hobbs and Republican lead- ership generally occur behind closed doors. On June 7, Republican state Sen. T.J. Shope wrote in the Senate Republican Caucus Newsletter that negotiations “are in the final stages” and that he anticipates a proposal hitting Hobbs’ desk “within the next two weeks.” Finding $10 million for civil legal aid would seem a drop in the bucket of the state’s nearly $100 billion budget. However, Arizona is bracing for federal cuts across many programs, including public health grants and Medicaid. Meanwhile, many state Republicans would prefer to cut state programs (along with taxes) rather than fund more of them. That means “we do not have a lot of extra money in our state budget to spend,” Ortiz said. “We are dealing with Republican lead- ership in the House and the Senate who are not prioritizing the needs of working-class people.” Kuby believes the legislature could easily fund civil legal aid by reining in other costly programs like the state’s largely over- sight-free school voucher system, though convincing the GOP to sign on to that is likely a pipe dream. It’s unclear what Republican leadership thinks of the proposal to fund civil legal aid through the state. Arizona Senate President Warren Petersen and Arizona House Speaker Steve Montenegro did not respond to a request for comment. As for the governor, Ortiz said she wasn’t “given a clear answer about whether the governor’s office shared my priority on this issue.” Hobbs spokesperson Christian Slater wrote in a statement that while the gover- nor’s office “does not comment on the contents of ongoing negotiations,” Hobbs “has been outspoken about the reckless, harmful” federal cuts. Slater also noted that Hobbs has made civil legal aid a priority in the past, directing Biden-era American Rescue Plan Act funds toward the programs in 2023. At least one Republican, state Rep. Alexander Kolodin, is advocating for an alternate solution. A lawyer who has run afoul of the state bar with 2020 election lawsuits, Kolodin said he’d support “loos- ening the requirements” to allow parale- gals and other non-bar-compliant lawyers to represent people in civil court for “run- of-the-mill” cases. “Realistically, the folks who need really complex services will still hire lawyers,” he told New Times. “But the folks who need defense from an eviction, they can have somebody who’s skilled and knowledgeable about evictions repre- senting them.” Expanding the ranks of people who can provide legal services is something that the Arizona Supreme Court has implemented in recent years. Arizona is a “legal desert” — the state doesn’t have enough lawyers, despite what the Valley’s many billboards would lead you to believe — and the Court has authorized around 60 paraprofes- sionals to operate “in some spaces” of civil law, like family law. But while they are generally more affordable than a full- fledged lawyer, paraprofessionals aren’t exactly cheap, either. “We cannot say, ‘Oh, we’ll find another pathway to help give people more support,’” Ortiz said. ”It has got to be both. We need the funding.” A lot of hopes and even more livelihoods may hang on that funding coming through. Schaffer called a $10 million budget infusion “a modest incremental first step” to “avoid a complete catastrophe and disaster.” Timmer told New Times that she’d “love it” if the state funded civil legal aid, though she (more than most) knows that policy decisions are the prerogatives of lawmakers. The Supreme Court’s meeting “accomplished one goal that I really wanted,” she said. “Which was to put this on the radar screen of the people who can do something.” In the meantime, civil legal aid organi- zations have no choice but to plow forward and hope that the money will be there in the end. “We have to just keep going every day,” Bridge said. Another Trump Cut from p 8 Ann Scott Timmer, the chief justice of the Arizona Supreme Court, called a stakeholders meeting to prepare for the possible end of federal funding for civil legal aid in Arizona. (Morgan Fischer)
