Who’s on first?

Brewer was dropped off by state troopers behind the House earlier this afternoon and dashed up the back stairs with a couple staff members. She then spent the next half-hour or so meeting with individual House Democrats.

But Democratic leaders say it won’t work unless she’s willing to consider major revisions to her budget that reflect their issues.

[snip]

Rep. Krysten Sinema, House Assistant Minority Leader, says for starters they want most of the GOP-backed policy proposals out of the current budget plan.

Protecting public education, health care and public safety over the long term are essential, she said. To that end, Democrats won’t support a flat tax proposal and want to see $250 million in state property tax revenues put back on the books.

Sinema and Sen. Rebecca Rios said House and Senate Democratic leaders worked the last two days to put together a detailed budget options plan which they gave to the governor and legislative leaders last night.

The Democrat plan also proposes hundreds of million of dollars less in cuts to state agencies.

[snip]

As of mid-afternoon Senate Republicans were still opposing any sales tax increase after having killed it earlier in the day.

Sen. John Huppenthal said he doubted there would ever be support for the tax.

“She can veto all the budgets she wants, but she’s never getting a tax referral out of here,” he said.

 “No one’s going to die because we shut down government.”

“Just put on your big-boy pants,” she said. “Lets get to work.”