Budget battles. Republican infighting?

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by David Safier

The sausage-making process of creating a state budget is a bit out of my area of expertise, but this item seems to foretell the world we have in store for us with a Republican legislature sending bills to a Republican Governor.

The AP article is short, so I'm including the whole thing.

State Senate President Tim Bee says work on a proposed December special session on Arizona's budget crisis fell apart over disagreement on how much of the problem to tackle.

The Tucson Republican who is leaving office in January said Monday that current House Republican leaders insisted on tackling the entire projected $1.2 billion shortfall.

Bee said others at the negotiating table were willing to just do cuts and other changes adding up to $400 million. He said there wouldn't be common ground with Democratic Gov. Janet Napolitano on more than that.

Bee and House Speaker Jim Weiers, a Phoenix Republican, told Napolitano in a letter Friday that her proposal was inadequate and that it was too late to call a special session contemplated for mid-December.

I read this to say that the Republicans are the reason the budget talks fell apart. The House wanted one thing, the Senate another. In the end, the Senate (Bee) went along with the House (Weiers) by mutually condemning Napolitano.

So what happens to the warring Republican budget factions when they don't have Janet to kick around anymore? Last session, when the Rs couldn't decide on a budget, the Ds and a few breakaway Rs crafted something they sent to Napolitano. This next session, that ain't gonna happen.

For Democrats, this could turn into a spectator sport. No need for cable. The Republican cage match is right up the road in Phoenix.

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