Printable VersionPHOENIX — Gov. Jan Brewer on Thursday publicly prodded lawmakers to take up her proposal to revamp state government’s personnel system, warning that she won’t consider Senate Republican bills targeting public employee unions before her own measures win approval.
A day ahead of Brewer’s warning a Senate committee had endorsed four Republican bills that would prohibit collective bargaining with public employees and impose other restrictions on public workers’ unions. The committee acted just two days after the bills were introduced.
Meanwhile, Brewer’s proposal to make sweeping changes in the personnel system, including making it easier to fire workers, has yet to be introduced as legislation.
Brewer doesn’t have a position on the union bills but, according to spokesman Matthew Benson, there’s apparently a misperception that those measures are part of a package with her suggested personnel system changes.
“Personnel reform is her priority,” Benson told The Associated Press, adding later, “she has been patient for more than a year.”
Sen. Rick Murphy, sponsor of the collective bargaining bill, said he didn’t understand why Brewer’s office was prodding the Legislature.
Murphy, a Peoria Republican, is chairman of the committee that probably would consider the personnel changes.
“I have not heard one word from her or her staff about the bill, about the contents, about possibly sponsoring it — nothing, not a peep, not a word, nothing. So they’re not searching very hard” for a sponsor, Murphy said. “I don’t know what game they’re playing but they’re not trying very hard to find a sponsor as far as I can tell.”
Brewer first floated her personnel proposal privately to majority Republican legislators last spring, but legislative leaders said it was too late to consider the proposal in the 2011 session and the plan was never formally introduced.
Apparently hinting at a possible veto, the union bills should not arrive at the governor’s desk before legislation on Brewer’s personnel system proposal, Benson said.
The Senate’s regular deadline to introduce bills was Monday and the House’s deadline is next Monday, but new legislation still can be proposed after that by substituting it for provisions in a bill already introduced
Brewer highlighted the personnel system proposal in her State of the State speech in January and is now getting impatient, Benson said.
Brewer contends the personnel changes would make state government more efficient and productive. Critics say her changes would open the door to political cronyism in state hiring.
The legislative bills on public employee unions are similar to measures championed by Republican governors and legislators in other states, including New Hampshire, Ohio and Wisconsin
The Arizona bills include one to prohibit allowing government workers to pay union dues through paycheck withholding.
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