Arizona Senate passes FY2027 budget and tax-conformity package after heated debate over border enforcement funding

The Arizona Senate on June 11, 2026, approved its FY2027 spending plan when it passed Senate Bill 18-47 by a vote of 23 ayes, 5 nays and 2 not voting, completing a daylong series of committee reports, floor amendments and roll-call votes.

The measure is the chamber’s annual “feed bill” that packages the general appropriations act with dozens of line-item directions and technical changes. Sponsors and supporters described a range of negotiated additions, including targeted allocations for school safety interoperability projects, increased staffing for several state agencies and a three-year pause on certain new data-center tax credits. As part of the package, lawmakers also adopted a set of tax-conformity changes that proponents say provide immediate tax relief to many taxpayers and lock in conformity with recent federal tax law.

Senator David C. Farnsworth, who presented many of the appropriations floor amendments, summarized multiple program-level changes, noting added or shifted funding for school safety, the Arizona Criminal Justice Commission, homeland security grants and vehicle-theft task-force appropriations. "It specifies that of the two full-time equivalent positions appropriated at the Arizona Department of Agriculture ... one FTE is for expenses associated to the screw worm response and one FTE is for expenses related to a foreign animal disease or pest," Farnsworth said during floor explanation of the amendments.

The floor debate grew heated over whether parts of the budget authorize or could be used for immigration enforcement. Senator Miranda, in a lengthy floor explanation against the bill, warned the budget’s border-related language could be used to fund state assistance to federal immigration enforcement. "Signing this budget makes us complicit in a regime that is terrorizing families and unfortunately killing them too," she said, arguing that state resources should instead be used for services such as rental assistance and child care.

Senate leaders defended the compromise the chamber reached. The Majority Leader and other Republican senators framed the tax changes and appropriations as broadly beneficial, emphasizing direct tax relief measures such as an expanded standard deduction, childcare-related deductions and other targeted credits. Senator Mesnard, a floor manager of the tax provisions, argued that the individual-income provisions in the package will help lower- and middle-income households and that the overall conformity approach avoids retroactive changes that would require taxpayers to amend returns.

Democratic senators who supported the final package said the negotiated process preserved and added funding for programs they prioritized while continuing to object to specific policy choices. Senator Sundarachian (explaining a yes vote) said the budget “is a compromised budget, and I find it far better than the first budget that this body sent to the governor a few weeks ago,” while also reiterating opposition to the portions of the bill that could be used for immigration enforcement.

Several floor amendments were adopted before final passage. Sponsors listed dozens of line items and transfers — for example, a $2,000,000 transfer to school-safety interoperability fund and a number of county-level distributions to sheriff’s offices for school safety projects — and made conforming changes across agencies.

The Senate recorded final passage shortly after extended debate and remarks; the Secretary was instructed to transmit the enacted bill to the governor. The floor also handled a large number of other bills and confirmations in the same session day: committees of the whole reported dozens of bills, many were adopted on third reading, and the chamber confirmed a package of gubernatorial nominations to boards and commissions.

Next steps: SB 18-47 was transmitted to the governor following the Senate’s action. Implementation of many line items will depend on agency rulemaking, grant solicitations and administrative allocations noted in the bill text; some program elements are one-time appropriations in FY2027 and are not continued in later years.

Sources: Floor statements and recorded votes on the Senate floor during the June 11, 2026 session.