Gov. Jan Brewer signed two budget bills Friday, including one approving a $40 million cut to Arizona’s three universities, and vetoed three others, continuing a political battle with the state Legislature that dates back to early this year.
The $40 million reduction in funding to state universities includes about $18.2 million in cuts to ASU. $15 million would come from the Tempe campus; $1.2 million would be cut from the Polytechnic campus in Mesa and $2 million from the West campus in Phoenix, according to a Joint Legislative Budget Committee report.
Brewer, who has been at odds with legislators over her proposed temporary sales-tax referral, vetoed bills that would have cut $50 million from the state Department of Economic Security and $220 million from K-12 education.
Brewer said she vetoed the cuts to DES and K-12 education because they are already struggling after large cuts from the 2009 budget.
“It was important that we held a certain level of funding so the situation was not made worse than it already is,” she said in a press conference Friday.
Brewer also signed controversial bills Friday cutting $30 million from the Department of Health Services and allowing the sale of the state House and Senate buildings, which the state would then lease back.
She also vetoed a bill that would have repealed the property equalization tax, a major provision in Republican lawmakers’ plans.
Brewer said she favors repealing the tax to encourage economic growth, but only if a plan is proposed to make up for the loss in revenue.
“It’s unconscionable at this point in time, given the fact that we have a deficit of $4 billion, for me to allow [the equalization tax] to continue to be suspended,” Brewer said.
Her decisions angered legislators on both sides of the aisle.
Rep. John Kavanagh, R-Fountain Hills, and chairman of the House Appropriations Committee, said Brewer will be hard-pressed to find compromise among other Republicans on her sales-tax referral after she vetoed the equalization tax repeal.
“That was one of the foundations of the Republican program,” Kavanagh said. “The chasm is so great, I don’t see how she can get her referral now.”
Rep. Kyrsten Sinema, D-Phoenix, who also sits on the House Appropriations Committee, said Brewer was unable to get the budget she wanted from the Legislature because she refused to compromise with Democrats in order to get her sales tax referral passed.
“The problem is she’s got an incomplete budget,” Sinema said. “We could’ve balanced the budget and given her the tax referral she wanted.”
Such a compromise would have required Brewer to make concessions including tax credits to low-income families and a guarantee that revenue from the sales tax would go toward education and health care, Sinema said.
Sinema said the suggestions Democrats made in negotiations
with the governor fell on deaf ears.
“We made exceptional concessions to our own budget requests just to appease the governor,” Sinema said. “However, she refused to compromise to take even one small step to work with Democrats to protect education and middle class families.”
Brewer’s vetoes come at a time state Treasurer Dean Martin said Arizona needs to have a balanced budget or it will run out of money by late October.
Brewer said she will work to find compromise and balance the budget before the state goes bankrupt.
“I will not give up on the future of our state,” she said. “I will not allow the state we all love to fall into the abyss of bankruptcy.”
Reach the reporter at derek.quizon@asu.edu.
