Capital outlay; appropriations; FY2026
HB2964 is the Arizona fiscal year 2025-2026 capital outlay appropriations bill. It makes a series of adjustments to prior state parks capital appropriations by reducing several previously authorized projects and reverting those amounts back to the state parks revenue fund. It then provides new capital outlay funding for major maintenance and repair of state buildings, including allocations to the Department of Administration, the Department of Corrections, the Arizona Game and Fish Department, the Arizona State Lottery Commission, and the Department of Transportation.
The bill also directs large appropriations for transportation infrastructure. It funds statewide highway construction and airport planning and development through the state highway fund and state aviation fund, respectively, and allows excess balances in those funds to be used for the same purposes. In addition to the appropriations, the bill requires multiple reports to legislative budget staff and executive budget officials on state parks project prioritization, highway construction spending, capital outlay information, debt service, and aviation grant distributions. It also exempts the highway and airport appropriations from Joint Committee on Capital Review oversight and bars the use of these appropriations for personal services or most employee-related costs.
HB2964 would amend the state’s capital spending for FY2026 by redirecting previously appropriated parks money back into the state parks revenue fund and by authorizing new capital outlay spending for building renewal, corrections facilities, game and fish facilities, lottery facilities, highways, and airports. It affects the use of several dedicated funds, including the capital outlay stabilization fund, the corrections building renewal fund, the game and fish fund, the state lottery fund, the state highway fund, and the state aviation fund. The bill also expands or clarifies permissible uses for some appropriations, such as allowing building renewal funds to support retrofitting for space consolidation initiatives, while restricting spending on personal services and overhead.
The voting history suggests the bill was generally supported but not unanimously. It passed the House Appropriations Committee and House Rules Committee, and then cleared third reading in both chambers, though the House floor vote was relatively close, indicating meaningful opposition. The presence of an emergency declaration motion also suggests the majority wanted the bill to move quickly as part of the budget process. Overall, the bill appears to have been treated as a routine but significant capital spending measure with broad institutional support and some partisan or policy-based resistance.
The main points of contention appear to be the size and allocation of capital spending, especially the large transportation appropriations and the reductions to previously approved state parks projects. Some lawmakers likely objected to shifting money away from parks projects such as campground improvements, renovations, and conservation work, while others may have questioned the scale of highway and airport funding or the bill’s exemptions from Joint Committee on Capital Review oversight. The restrictions on oversight and the ability to use excess fund balances without additional appropriation review may also have been controversial, as could the reallocation of building renewal funds toward space consolidation-related retrofits.