The Arizona Center for Economic Progress, a nonpartisan advocacy group, cautions that this short-term relief through $1.4 billion in tax cuts over the next several years could prove costly over time and reduce the tax revenue available to invest in state priorities.

“Arizona has lost nearly $11 billion to tax cuts over the past 30 years, while the state’s tax system remains one of the most regressive in the nation,” the group shared on Friday after the budget’s approval. “The state cannot keep cutting the revenue needed to fully fund child care, public K-12 education, health care, housing, water, and food assistance and still expect to build a strong, competitive economy."

"Arizona has become the clearest warning sign of what happens when federal policymakers shift costs and complexity onto states instead of protecting families' access to food," said Joseph Palomino, director of the Arizona Center for Economic Progress. "Nearly half a million Arizonans — including more than 205,000 children — have already lost SNAP, not because they stopped needing help, but because a harmful policy is making it harder for eligible families to stay connected to the assistance they need."

So far, 473,793 Arizona resident have lost food stamp benefits, including 205,223 children, according Department of Economic Security data.

“Every new update tells the same troubling story: More Arizona families are losing access to basic food assistance at the same time they are being squeezed by rising costs,” said Joseph Palomino, director of the Arizona Center for Economic Progress. “SNAP is not just a line item in a budget. It is food for children, stability for families, and dollars flowing into local communities.”

“These losses should be a wake-up call for lawmakers,” Palomino said. “Arizona families need policies that help them stay stable, afford basic needs, and participate fully in the economy — not more barriers that push people closer to crisis.”

Arizona's legislature proposed a state budget that once again offered tax cuts. But cutting taxes means less revenue coming in to pay for everything the state needs. Time to fix the math problem.

Arizona’s budget debate is stuck in a place that no longer reflects reality.

For years, state lawmakers have treated tax cuts as a default strategy, arguing that they will magically produce growth, attract business and solve economic challenges. But budgets are not built on magic. They are built on math. And right now, the math doesn't add up.

The latest budget proposal makes that clear. The state is facing real constraints, yet instead of addressing the revenue shortfall, lawmakers are doubling down on the same approach: cutting taxes and hoping for a different result.

That is not a strategy. It is a gamble Arizona can no longer afford.

But Joseph Palomino, director of the Arizona Center for Economic Progress, told the Mirror that many of the policies in the Republican budget were unpopular. 

“It’s not going to meaningfully address affordability, it’s not going to grow the economy,” he said.

Joseph Palomino, Executive Director of the Arizona Center for Economic Progress, said the decline traces back to changes in federal rules under what’s being referred to as the “One Big Beautiful Bill Act,” along with a shortage of state workers needed to process cases.

“This really does go to the root of the changes that were made,” Palomino said.

He said the numbers are still falling month to month.

From February to March, “we did see another decline,” Palomino said.

DES, which administers SNAP in Arizona, said in a statement that it is “currently navigating one of the most significant structural changes to federal nutrition assistance in decades.”

TUCSON, Ariz. (13 News) - More than 400,000 Arizonans have lost access to SNAP since last July, according to the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities.

Arizona is experiencing the largest decline in program enrollment in the country.

The decline followed the implementation of H.R. 1, also known as the Big Beautiful Bill, which went into effect in July. The legislation changed the funding structure for SNAP, expanded work requirements for recipients, and reduced eligibility for non-citizens.

Statewide and federal factors contribute to decline

Joseph Palomino with the Arizona Center for Economic Progress said the problem has been exacerbated by Arizona’s Department of Economic Security’s facing resource constraints.

“You have all this additional bureaucratic requirements, and then you have this terrible incentive for states to reduce their payment error rates or face a pretty significant cost shift,” Palomino said.

Arizona has now dropped more than 450,000 people from the SNAP program since federal changes went into effect last July. That includes 196,000 children no longer receiving benefits.

“SNAP is one of the most effective tools we have to help families put food on the table and keep local economies moving,” director Joseph Palomino said in a statement. “When hundreds of thousands of people lose that support, the consequences don’t stop at the dinner table — they ripple through our economy, our communities, and our future workforce.”