Budget Update: Senate Rules Committee Blows Up Sales Tax Hike

Posted by AzBlueMeanie:

Well that didn't take long.

The Senate Rules Committee rejected the measure that would refer a temporary sales-tax hike to the ballot. Senate committee rejects public vote on sales-tax hike

The 1-5 vote threw an already unpredictable process into more chaos with only 14 hours left before the deadline to enact a budget for fiscal 2010.

The sales-tax referral is the linchpin of the budget deal, from Gov. Jan Brewer's perspective. If she doesn't get a ballot referral, she has implied that she would veto the budget bills.

Senate President Bob Burns, R-Peoria, was the only "yes" vote. Other members of the GOP leadership team, senators Chuck Gray of Mesa and Pamela Gorman of Anthem, voted no, along with Sen. Thayer Verschoor, R-Gilbert, and the panel's two Democrats, Senate Minority Leader Jorge Garcia of Tucson and Sen. Debbie McCune Davis of Phoenix.

The committee approved the other 10 bills in the budget package, but halted work on SCR1046, which refers the sales tax to the November ballot.

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The matter can be brought up for reconsideration. And Burns, as Senate president, has the power to replace committee members with senators who might be more favorably disposed to the measure.

Ah yes, more totalitarianism from Bob "Bluto" Burns. Will the owner of this Yahoo please claim him at baggage pickup.

[A]House Appropriations Committee that was scheduled to start at 9 a.m. remained on hold. The panel has yet to consider three bills: A proposal to enact a flat income tax, the sales-tax referral, and a bill that authorizes the November election at which the sales tax is up for consideration.

Update II: The East Valley Tribune's Le Templar blog reports State budget countdown update:

Meanwhile, the House of Representatives appears to be heading toward action on the budget deal, but without either the sales tax election or the proposed switch in 2012 from graduated income tax system to a flat rate, which was supposed to be the inducement for fiscal conservatives to support the temporary sales tax. That would imply legislative Republicans are ready to send Gov. Jan Brewer a budget with a lot of the changes she wanted, but without any hope of mitigating the education and health care funding cuts that she opposes.

Brewer has been threatening for weeks to veto the entire budget if it doesn’t include a sales tax election or similar alternative. But does she have the backbone to veto a budget on the final day of the fiscal year and start shutting down portions of state government that aren’t protected by the state constitution?

Looks like we've got ourselves an internal GOP showdown… will the Accidental Governor cave to pressure?