Arizona - Legislature crams months of work into 2 days

Legislature crams months of work into 2 days
State budget deadline, vacations push lawmakers to pass bills

by Mary Jo Pitzl - Jun. 29, 2009 12:00 AM
The Arizona Republic

As Arizona lawmakers enter their 24th week of work, things don't look all that different from when they started Jan. 12: A gargantuan budget deficit. Scores of bills. Difficult relations with the governor. And not much to show for all the time and effort.

With the deadline for a state budget looming Tuesday, Arizona will see if its elected officials can essentially cram six months of work into two days.

If not, there is a possibility of a government shutdown, or, more likely, week-by-week funding to a shrinking number of state services. The governor and Legislature would have to agree to a continuing resolution to fund government services.

So far, the 49th Legislature's tangible achievements have been few in number. It has fixed the current-year budget twice (and it's still upside down), sent seven mostly budget-related bills to Gov. Jan Brewer and continued a scholarship program for foster children and disabled students, even while cutting services to the broader disabled population.

Work on the hundreds of bills that were introduced earlier this year moved at a steady pace in the House, but was non-existent in the Senate until June 8. That's because Senate President Bob Burns, in an effort to focus attention on the state budget, would not allow any work on legislation until a budget was complete.

The result: A blizzard of bills that lawmakers have shoveled through since June 8 as they work toward Tuesday. On Saturday alone, the Senate took action on 35 bills, including measures to legalize certain fireworks and to ban photo enforcement on state highways.

The House is scheduled to debate 44 bills today.

The end of June is the deadline for budget bills only. In theory, the Legislature can continue its session indefinitely to debate other bills. In reality, though, the end of June becomes a deadline for all other bills, too, because many members plan to leave town after then.

Lobbying continued behind the scenes Sunday to line up the needed votes for the $8.4 billion budget compromise that the Republican governor and GOP legislative leaders unveiled Friday. It hasn't been an easy sell. Expectations that the plan would breeze through once Brewer, Burns and House Speaker Kirk Adams had resolved their differences (a dispute that took a detour through the state Supreme Court) evaporated Saturday when a House budget committee halted its consideration of the budget package after nearly six hours of work.

The hang-up: A move to give voters a choice on a temporary sales-tax increase, which Brewer has said is paramount, and an eleventh-hour proposal to convert the state's graduated income-tax system to a modified flat tax. The two elements were a key part of the compromise. Conservative lawmakers oppose the idea of a sales-tax hike; to win them over, leaders added the proposal to start a flat tax in 2012.

Work will formally resume this morning when the Senate Appropriations Committee starts its review of the budget package and its House counterpart completes its disrupted Saturday agenda.

After that, approval from the full House and Senate is needed to enact the budget compromise.

While few were predicting a vote would happen Monday, there was still widespread belief that Arizona won't be pitched into its first government shutdown.

"I'm still cautiously optimistic we can get this done," Adams said Saturday.