PHOENIX — Gov. Katie Hobbs is restoring nearly $16.5 million to Arizona’s three public universities using leftover federal American Rescue Plan Act dollars, undoing a one-time cut included in the state’s June spending plan, Capitol Media Services reported via Tucson.com.
Under Tuesday’s restoration, Arizona State University is slated for nearly $8.1 million, the University of Arizona more than $4.7 million plus slightly more than $1 million for UA Health Sciences, and Northern Arizona University more than $2.6 million. Hobbs agreed in June to an $18.3 billion budget negotiated with Republican lawmakers that imposed a 2.5% across-the-board cut on many agencies, including the universities.
Hobbs said leftover funds remain from about $4.2 billion Arizona received in 2021 under ARPA. Federal rules required states to obligate the money by the end of 2024 and spend it by the end of 2026. Press aide Christian Slater declined to detail where the dollars were originally allocated or why they became available now, and denied the timing relates to Hobbs’s reelection race against Republican U.S. Rep. Andy Biggs; early voting begins Oct. 7.
University leaders have argued state aid — now covering about 12% of their budgets — is needed for maintenance backlogs and to keep resident tuition affordable. GOP lawmakers who backed the cuts, including Rep. John Gillette of Kingman and House Appropriations Chair David Livingston of Peoria, countered that universities pull large grant and out-of-state tuition revenues and could absorb temporary reductions.
Earlier in budget talks, Republicans floated a deeper 5% permanent cut that would have hit universities for about $38.9 million; Hobbs said she narrowed the university hit to under $16.5 million before Tuesday’s ARPA backfill erased that remaining one-time cut. Other agencies’ across-the-board reductions were not restored with the same ARPA pot.
Slater said earmarking the full nearly $16.5 million for universities reflects Hobbs’s commitment to workforce pipelines and campus opportunity. Critics will watch whether the one-time federal dollars create a hole when ARPA spending authority ends, or whether the Legislature revisits base funding next session.
The politics are unavoidable even if Slater rejects an electoral motive: university alumni networks are large voting blocs in Maricopa and Pima counties, and campus affordability has been a recurring theme in Hobbs’s messaging. Biggs and legislative Republicans are likely to argue the ARPA backfill proves universities never faced a structural crisis and that tax-cut-driven budget discipline remains appropriate.
Fiscal analysts will watch the state’s year-end ARPA closeout reports for whether other pandemic-era commitments were quietly reshuffled to free the $16.5 million. If the dollars were truly unspent balances rather than redirected projects, the restoration may face fewer legal hurdles — but it still leaves non-university agencies that took permanent or multi-year hits without similar one-time relief.
Based on Howard Fischer / Capitol Media Services reporting published Sept. 29–30, 2026, on Tucson.com. Dollar figures and quotes as attributed in that report.