Lawmakers must go back to the drawing board after Gov. Janet Napolitano vetoed the Legislature's budget plan for 2006 late Monday evening.
The Legislature's proposal would have given ASU $346.7 million, $11.4 million less than Napolitano's $358.1 million allocation to the University.
Napolitano said in a statement that she vetoed the budget because it did not give enough money to education and other areas in which her budget invested.
"My budget proposal moves Arizona forward," she said. "This one brings our state to a dead stop."
ASU had always preferred the governor's budget proposal to the Legislature's, said Scott Smith, ASU's director of state and local government relations.
Not only does Napolitano's plan set aside more money for ASU than the Legislature's, it also allocates funds to projects such as a proposed joint venture between ASU and UA to open a medical school in Phoenix, Smith said.
The governor also vetoed 15 bills accompanying the budget, including one that would have prevented ASU from collecting money from the state for students who had acquired more than 155 credits and stopped the Board of Regents from increasing tuition for continuing in-state students.
Sen. Bob Burns, R-Peoria, said he was disappointed but not surprised Napolitano vetoed the budget.
"After you spend a couple months working on something, yes, it's disappointing," he said.
Senate President Ken Bennett, R-Prescott, and House Speaker James Weiers, R-Phoenix, are scheduled to meet with Napolitano today to discuss changes she would like to see to the budget, Burns said.
Reach the reporter at amanda.keim@asu.edu.
