Arizona Budget Impasse Continues

Posted by AzBlueMeanie:

Senate Republican leaders say their budget work is at a point at which they're looking for ideas, other than raising taxes, to close the final $500 million or so of the projected roughly $3 billion budget deficit for the 2010 fiscal year starting July 1. Road bumpy for Arizona lawmakers' budget work

"This is how we don't get a tax increase," said Senate Majority Whip Pamela Gorman, R-Anthem.

Got an idea that could save the state money? State Majority Whip Pamela Gorman, R-Anthem, says she wants to hear from you: pgorman@azleg.gov

"Some of the greatest ideas in history are on cocktail napkins," she said. God help us. A partial list of the mostly asinine ideas she has received to date was published in the Arizona Daily Star on Thursday 197 ideas, some offbeat, for slashing state deficit Here's an idea for you, Pam: just do your damn job that we pay you to do and quit punting your responsibilities to the voters!

Governor Jan Brewer proposed in her address to the Legislature that lawmakers use a mix of spending cuts, stimulus money and a temporary tax increase to balance the next budget, but Republican lawmakers are balking at raising taxes or asking voters to do so.

In other words, the Governor and the "no new taxes pledge" radical ideologues in the GOP caucus are at loggerheads with one another. This is a high stakes game of chicken to see who will blink before the 2010 fiscal year starting July 1. If there is no budget agreement by July 1, the state will have to resort to the short-term borrowing recently established by State Treasurer Dean Martin to avoid shutting down government services.

Senate President Bob Burns, R-Peoria, and other Republican leaders had declined to release specifics of their developing budget plan, saying that would spur premature complaints from supporters of various programs being considered for spending cuts. He was right. On Thursday, the draft GOP budget was released. According to the Arizona Guardian (subscription required):

On balance, the budget proposals that trickled out Thursday from Republican legislative leaders are DOA.

The dramatic cuts to health, welfare and education programs — nearly $600 million on top of the $600 million already slashed this year — are too much for most in the GOP-led Legislature to stomach, and likely far too deep to win Republican Gov. Jan Brewer's signature.

So we are still at an impasse. Governor Brewer should take a lesson from Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger of California and his recent budget impasse and start getting tough with these Republican obstructionists.

Governor Brewer does have an alternative: she can work with the Democrats to craft a hybrid budget from the budget submitted by former Governor Janet Napolitano and her own proposals, something both the Democrats and the Governor can live with for now, and then turn to some arm twisting to bring along the handful of moderate Republican votes needed in each chamber to pass the budget.

It is simply foolhardy for the Governor to trust Republicans like Bob Burns, Pamela Gorman and Russell Pearce to craft a budget along the lines that she proposed. It ain't gonna happen. We're all just wasting our time.

There are only three realistic alternatives here: Governor Brewer will break her word and agree to the draconian "budget cuts only plan" being crafted by the "no new taxes pledge" radical ideologues in the GOP caucus; or Governor Brewer will put the best interests of the state ahead of her own political ambitions and agree to work with Democrats to craft a budget plan and bring along enough moderate Republicans to pass a budget. The final option is a prolonged budget impasse and eventually starting the process of shutting down government services after July 1.

It may be a long hot summer.