The state Legislature continued its battle this week with Gov. Jan Brewer during the special session over proposed cuts in the budget and a ballot proposition that could lead to a higher sales tax.
The governor called for the session on July 1, when she vetoed portions of the budget passed by the Legislature earlier that morning, including cuts to the public school system and the state universities.
Last week, Brewer approved a revised budget passed by legislators that restored more than $300 million in funding to the K-12 system and $180 million to the universities. Brewer said the restoration of the funds was necessary in order to meet the requirements for all of the federal stimulus funding offered to the state.
“I am pleased the Legislature retained higher funding levels for K-12 [and] for Universities,” Brewer said in a statement released Wednesday. “This will allow Arizona to proceed with my application for federal stimulus funds.”
The restoration of funding also left the state with a $2.6 billion deficit, leaving the governor and lawmakers scrambling to find ways of closing the shortfall. The rest of the special session will be dedicated to finding ways of balancing the budget.
“We are in the eye of the storm,” said Rep. John Kavanagh, R-Fountain Hills. “What we passed the other day was just a stopgap.”
Brewer hopes to pass a sales tax referral, a ballot measure that would allow voters to decide in the fall whether or not to raise sales taxes in order to close the deficit. Members of the Republican majority in the Legislature, however, say a tax increase during a recession would only further weaken the economy.
Brewer was able to sway Republican leadership in favor of the sales tax referral after weeks of negotiations, only to have the measure fall apart on the floor of the Legislature.
Rep. John McComish, R-Ahwatukee Foothills, the House majority leader, complained that Brewer is using the session to get her sales tax referral passed.
“We were disappointed that [Brewer] vetoed so many parts of our budget because we felt we held our end of the bargain,” McComish said. “That was a balanced budget. The only thing it didn’t have was a one-cent sales tax [increase].”
Brewer may be able to get the referral passed this session with the help of the Democratic minority. Sen. Jorge Garcia, a Tucson Democrat who is the House minority leader, said Brewer has been working closely with the Democrats this session to get them to pass the referral.
“We have a different perspective on how to raise revenue,” Garcia said, “but at the end of the day, we’d be hard-pressed not to support a sales tax referral.”
Garcia said the Democrats would prefer to broaden the tax base, introducing new taxes rather than raising existing ones, but he prefers Brewer’s sales tax referral to the Republicans’ proposed cuts to health care and education.
Sen. Paula Aboud, D-Tucson, said the negotiations should have taken place months ago.
“I’m grateful to the governor for vetoing that horrible budget,” Aboud said. “[But] was I ecstatic? No. I think we could’ve done all of this in the six months leading up to the budget.”
Kavanagh accused the governor of forcing her agenda on the Legislature. If they can’t reach an agreement quickly, he said, parts of the state government will lose funding.
“She’s being stubborn and unreasonable,” Kavanagh said. “It’s now a choice between her budget and the state self-destructing.”
Reach the reporter at derek.quizon@asu.edu
