Time’s up! It’s the Final Countdown

Posted by AzBlueMeanie:

The Arizona Legislature has until midnight Tuesday night to pass a budget that our Accidental Governor will actually sign. The Senate and House will take up the package of feed bills this morning.

Governor Brewer has said that she will not sign any budget that does not include her sales tax increase. My informal head count in the Senate is coming up short of the 16 votes needed for passage. As I've said before, the situation is fluid — there are all kinds of secretive backroom deals being made, and there is always a sea of lobbyist money floating around. Anything can happen, but it does not appear at this time that the Accidental Governor has the votes she needs to get her sales tax increase. If she is true to her word – a questionable proposition – this will torpedo the compromise budget deal.

Some Republicans have said they are willing to break the deal the GOP insane clown posse leadership made with the Accidental Governor last week. That would mean sending the Accidental Governor the budget package from June 4 with the deeper cuts that she's all but said she'll veto, threatening a government shutdown on Wednesday. "We have a budget that's been passed," said Sen. Russell Pearce, R-Mesa, chairman of the Senate Appropriations Committee. "It will be sent to the governor. It will be the governor's choice if we can't get another budget out of here." GOP legislative leaders try to save budget deal

"We have a budget,'' said Sen. Jack Harper, R-Surprise, referring to the package adopted June 4 with only Republican votes. He called it "a pretty good budget'' and said Brewer should sign it.

Harper acknowledged that sending her that June 4 plan puts Brewer in a take-it-or-leave-it position. He said she will do the former. Budget stalemate continues as deadline looms

Sen. Ron Gould, R-Lake Havasu City, isn't making any predictions of what Brewer will do if the only thing lawmakers send her is the budget she all but has said she would veto. But he, too, wants to send it to her — even if she does reject it and leave the state without a budget.

"We need to cut, we need to right-size Arizona's government, and we need to do it quickly,'' Gould continued. "If we have to shut down government to do it, so be it.''

There does not appear to be enough votes to pass the eleventh-hour "flat tax" income tax proposal. The "flat tax" proposal has run into bipartisan opposition and editorial rebukes today in the Arizona Republic Rush to adopt a state flat tax is risky, reckless and the Arizona Daily Star Lawmakers act recklessly in final hours. "Reckless" and "irresponsible" are the watchwords of the day. If this "sweetener" to ideological anti-tax Republicans does not pass, they have no incentive to break their "no new taxes" pledge to their dark lord and master Grover Norquist by voting for the Accidental Governor's sales tax increase.

The arm twisting, threats and intimidation seem likely to continue into the wee hours of Wednesday morning. We'll have to wait and see how this GOP civil war plays out. We should know the answer by tomorrow morning.