As promised, the Arizona Senate and House appropriations committees met jointly today to hear what happens if a new state budget isn’t adopted by June 30. The answer: a total nightmare.
   Richard Stavneak, the legislator’s top budget expert, said most state agencies actually have two-year budgets in place and, in theory, they could keep operating past July 1 even if lawmakers haven’t resolved an estimated $2.2 billion budget shortfall. There are only a few agencies operating on budgets that end June 30: including the ones that house 38,000 prison inmates, provide health insurance to more than 1.1 million people, oversee funding for 1.1 million school children, as well as those agencies that provide public safety on existing highways and construct new state roads.
   In other words, the most important state agencies are about to run out of money, while dozens of minor ones would still have access to our tax dollars.
   Mike Braun, director of the legislative office that writes all bills and does other research, said individual programs could continue to receive funding if they covered in a certain way in state statutes. But no one has researched the 22,000 statutes on the books to see exactly what agencies or programs are covered and which ones aren’t, Braun said.
  Doesn’t really matter anyway, according to state Treasurer Dean Martin and William Bell, director of the state Department of Administration. Those two agencies have only one-year budgets, so without action by June 30, the state won’t be able to issue any checks and won’t be able to pay a single state employee, they said.
   Sen. Bob Burns, R-Peoria and in charge of the meeting, decided after more than two hours not to hear from most of the elected officials called in to explain the disaster coming if their state budgets aren’t renewed. But Secretary of State Jan Brewer did get a chance to predict that if there’s any disruption to her budget, the state won’t hold the September 2 primary on time.
   In one bit of good news, Braun told the committees he could find no legal barrier to the Legislature using temporary spending bills to keep government operating while negotiating a final budget. But there’s no indication that anyone is actually working on such potential measures at this point.
   Burns suggested that the Legislature might be able to get the budget process moving if Democratic lawmakers stopped cooperating with Gov. Janet Napolitano and just worked face-to-face with their Republican colleagues. I think I’ll win the Arizona Lottery before that happens, and I haven’t bought a single ticket this month.

Posted in: Arizona Legislature • Arizona government • Governor |

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