PHOENIX (AP) — Arizona Gov. Jan Brewer avoided a shutdown of state government Wednesday by signing a budget bill from the Legislature, but her vetoes of other spending proposals leave the state’s fiscal woes unresolved.
Hours after the Legislature adjourned its regular session, the governor called a special session to begin Monday to focus on the budget and reconsider her sales tax hike that lawmakers had already rejected.
“These budget bills would prevent the proper function of many critical components of state government, as well as undermine our efforts to develop and encourage a prosperous future,” Brewer said in a letter explaining her vetoes.
Brewer used her line-item veto power on the budget’s spending for K-12 public schools as a way to compel lawmakers to increase that funding above the approximately $4 billion provided in the budget. Her office said the K-12 school system has enough money to get by temporarily.
She also eliminated the Legislature’s lump-sum spending cuts to environmental quality, social services and health services departments, as well as some funding for the state’s three public universities.
It’s not known whether there will be enough lawmakers at the statehouse Monday to have a quorum for the special session. Lawmakers have been in session for more than five months, and several of them have vacation plans that conflict with the special session.
House Democratic leaders cast doubts about the prospects for success with the special session, saying the outcome won’t be any different in the special session if the governor leaves out the concerns of rank-and-file Democrats.
“What is the point of calling a special session if there’s no agreement and nothing has changed — and nothing will probably change between now and Monday,” said House Minority Leader David Lujan, a Democrat from Phoenix.
Calls seeking comment on the vetoes weren’t immediately returned Wednesday afternoon by Republican legislative leaders. A spokeswoman for Senate President Bob Burns said Burns won’t comment on the vetoes until Thursday.
State Superintendent of Public Instruction Tom Horne, a Republican, said budget uncertainty wasn’t a concern for his department in the short run but could cause drastic consequences for charter schools if lawmakers and the governor don’t approve a budget by July 15.
That’s when the state will need spending authority to make a scheduled payment to schools. Without the money, some charter schools might miss loan payments or payroll, Horne said.
Like other states, Arizona’s finances have been shredded by the recession. Arizona’s tax collections have been hammered by rising unemployment, dampened consumer spending and the housing industry’s collapse.
The lack of an approved budget before the new fiscal year began at 12:01 a.m. Wednesday had raised concerns about a possible state government shutdown. The Legislature did not finish approving the budget bills until shortly before 3 a.m.
Throughout the session, Brewer has been at odds with the Republican-led Legislature over her approach to fixing the state’s budget woes, particularly her call for a sales tax hike as a way to protect important services from damaging cuts. Lawmakers omitted the sales tax increase.
The budget bills approved Wednesday by the Legislature would have modified a legislative budget passed on June 4 but not sent to Brewer. Those 10 bills also were sent to Brewer on Wednesday.
Brewer had called the June 4 budget inadequate, saying it would cut spending too deeply. Republican lawmakers who drafted it said the state needed to rein in spending because budget troubles will continue for several years.
The budget package negotiated by Brewer and GOP legislative leaders to close a projected $3.2 billion shortfall included both a three-year, one-cent sales tax increase — which was to be submitted to voters in a Nov. 3 special election — and income tax changes sought by lawmakers.
As part of the package, additional revenue from the sales tax increase could have scaled back several budget-balancing steps, including reductions in spending cuts for education and new borrowing by the state.
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Associated Press writers Paul Davenport and Jonathan J. Cooper contributed to this report.
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Copyright 2009 The Associated Press.
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