Bad Blood Amid GOP as Arizona Session Reopens Fiscal Wounds

DALLAS - Arizona lawmakers open a special session today amid recriminations between Republican leaders and deep divisions over Gov. Jan Brewer's proposed sales tax increase.

The special session on education funding comes five days after a regular session that unraveled in the last week and delivered an $8.4 billion budget a day later than required under the state constitution. The nine budget bills contained none of the compromises that Brewer and legislative leaders agreed to.

"I am deeply disappointed to report to the people of Arizona that the Legislature has been unable to send me a responsible budget plan," Brewer said in her call for the special session.

Calling the budget "fatally flawed," the Republican governor said the spending plan "ignores my consistently expressed goals and instead incorporates devastating cuts to education, public safety, and our state's most vital health services for the frail. In particular, this package of bills is shortsighted in that it sets up an enormous revenue shortfall that will severely harm our state's future."

Brewer's own budget plan included a three-year, 1 percentage point increase in the state sales tax to raise $1 billion and cushion the impact of deep cuts in state spending. In a compromise with GOP legislative leaders, Brewer agreed to submit the tax increase to voters and accepted a flat income tax proposed by the lawmakers to replace the state's graduated tax.

Those compromises never made it into the budget that was passed after all-night debate and a session that closed at 7:32 a.m. on July 1. In another bizarre twist, legislative leaders ordered the doors to the Senate locked so that Brewer could not send a representative with a veto message before the session could officially end.

Brewer used her line-item veto to eliminate cuts she considered too severe. Restoring adequate funding to public schools "will require significantly more legislative work," she said in her statement.

In written comments on the session's close, House Speaker Kirk Adams, R-Mesa, and Senate President Bob Burns, R-Peoria, said they could not win passage of Brewer's proposal on the sales tax referendum.

"We tried everything possible, but could not get the votes," Burns said. "We still have a lot of work to do, and we have been and remain committed to working with the governor to revisit the tax issue down the road."

The Legislature cut spending to close a $3 billion budget deficit for the fiscal year that began July 1, but Brewer's office estimates that the gap could be $4 billion. State revenues continue to fall beyond projections. Republicans who cut taxes in 2006 refused to consider raising them to cover the shortfall.

"This budget balances a $3 billion state deficit with significant reductions to state spending and works to readjust our spending levels to actual income," Adams said.

Burns admitted that "there is no way to put a bow on this budget package. It's not pretty, but in the midst of the worst economic crisis in Arizona's history, this is the best solution."

The minority Democrats pilloried the Republican governor and legislative leaders, who met in court over the Legislature's refusal to send Brewer the budget that was passed June 4.

"Gov. Brewer has shown a true lack of leadership," said House Minority Leader David Lujan. "She and Republican lawmakers failed Arizonans who just wanted a better economy, jobs and education by choosing to wait until the last minute and allow the state to completely melt down. She should be ashamed of her behavior."

Burns and Adams were accused of sandbagging Brewer by waiting until the last minute to send the budget so that she could not veto it. Lawmakers contended that they were only required to send the budget by June 30, which they still did not accomplish. The Arizona Supreme Court ruled that the Legislature had violated the state constitution but declined to issue an order to send the budget.

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