Long road still to go for state
Lawmakers doubt progress will be made on Monday

When the Arizona State Legislature convenes for a special session on Monday, don’t expect any quick resolutions, local state lawmakers say.

Rep. Doris Goodale, R-Lake Havasu City, says people shouldn’t expect much at all from Monday’s session.

“The only intent (Monday) is to open the session,” Goodale said.

Gov. Jan Brewer and the state Legislature have faced a difficult task closing the state’s $3 billion budget shortfall. The $3 billion shortfall amounts to approximately 30 percent of the state’s overall budget.

Legislators submitted a budget to Brewer last Wednesday after an all-night session to meet the June 30 deadline. The budget called for almost $631 million in spending cuts statewide to education, the Department of Public Safety and prisons, among many others.

Wednesday’s budget came after what many have called the nastiest fiscal fight in Arizona history. After Brewer vetoed much of the Legislature’s June 4 budget submission, Republican lawmakers had refused to send a second that Brewer had said she would veto, prompting Brewer to sue both state Speaker of the House Kirk Adams and Bob Burns, president of the state Senate. The Arizona Supreme Court ultimately ruled against Brewer.

Goodale said the budget submitted was a reasonable one that worked to scale down the size of state government.

One item left off the Legislature budget was Brewer’s proposal for a one-cent sales tax. The 18 percent sales tax increase was anticipated to bring in around $1 billion over the next three years. It would increase the current rate from 5.6 percent to 6.6 percent.

Sen. Ron Gould, R-Lake Havasu City, says the one-cent sales tax proposal became an issue of pride for the governor.

“Gov. Brewer vetoed the budget out of spite,” Gould said. “She voted for the things she liked, and now she is playing politics to get that tax increase opened.”

Gould also said the budget submitted early Wednesday was one Burns and Adams had negotiated with Brewer, and her line-item vetoes now have legislators hesitant to work with Brewer.

“You can’t trust her,” he said. “We’re afraid to send her stuff, and I don’t know how we get around this.”

One measure vetoed from last week’s budget was a 2 percent cut to education. Section 9 of House Bill 2648 set the base level allotted per student of just more than $3,267 million, which gave school districts a full 2 percent inflation factor. A notwithstanding clause in section 25 of the bill removes the 2 percent inflation to the base and set the base level at $3,201. The base level per student for last fiscal year was just under $3,300.

Both the legislative budgets call for a sweep of Vehicle License Tax to go to schools statewide, effectively making local cities and towns responsible for funding schools, Ken Strobeck, executive director of the Arizona League of Cities and Towns, says.

“There is a case law all the way through the State Supreme Court that says schools are not the responsibility of city and town government,” Strobeck said Thursday.

Goodale said the current budget sweeps approximately $22 million from cities and towns, half of what was originally proposed. The June 4 budget called for around $42 million in VLT to be swept from cities.

Whatever the governor and the Legislature do, they better do it quickly. Funding for state schools is needed by July 15 for this fiscal year. As schools districts, like the Lake Havasu Unified School District, work to determine their own budgets, they must wait to see how much and where their funding would come from.

Goodale said education made up 43 percent of the state’s entire budget, and cuts were going to have to be made.

The league strongly opposed the June 4 budget because of the VLT tax and a three-year moratorium proposed on impact fees. Strobeck said the moratorium might have freed up impact fees to be used for whatever purpose local governments saw fit. Something, he says, is illegal because impact fees are collected solely for the purpose of infrastructure growth.

Strobeck also argued that local governments have done their part cutting back on workforce and issuing numerous department cuts. Now, he says, it is time for the state to do the same.

Both Goodale and Gould say the budget won’t be a quick fix if the political games continue because neither side is likely to buckle.

“They (Legislature) are just not going to put together a budget that is going to giver (Brewer) everything she wants,” said Gould. “There won’t be a quick fix for her vetoes. Leadership is going to have to figure out a way to get the budget locked in stone to prevent further vetoes. It may not be until next month.”

You may contact the reporter at twaggoner@havasunews.com.

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