HOUSE DEMOCRATIC FLOOR LEADER PHIL LOPES

   It’s Friday, you didn’t expect the Legislature would do any work today, did you? It’s not like they have anything that really needs to get finished…
   Actually, Rep. Phil Lopes, the House Minority Leader, told local NPR affiliate KJZZ for a news story broadcast this morning that Democrats asked for a break until Monday so they could study the latest proposal from Republican negotiators to resolve a predicted $2.2 billion budget shortfall when the new fiscal year starts July 1.
   As Lopes described it, the Republicans haven’t offered an actual budget – you know, something with lots of columns and numbers and the bottom line hopefully balances out instead of being filled with red ink. Instead, this is a list of principles or budget concepts that Republicans want Democrats to accept before they get down to the part where they put budget numbers to paper and start compromising.
   At this rate, Arizona will have a new budget sometime after the state centennial in 2012.
   This list of principles sort of fits into the Republican leadership’s not-so-successful strategy of failing to come up with a solution but blaming the minority Democrats and Gov. Janet Napolitano for all of their problems. Sure, the Democrats have buried their head in the sand about the scope of the cuts necessary to get out of this crisis. But Republicans haven’t offered a true black-and-white alternative for months.
   The only thing available is a list of up to $1.5 billion in cuts offered by Rep. Russell Pearce, R-Mesa, and Sen. Bob Burns, R-Peoria. I understand that list slashes so deeply into K-12 education, the state universities and the Department of Economic Security that Napolitano never would sign it – even if Republicans could somehow guarantee she would become vice president in January.
   More importantly, the Pearce/Burns plan can’t get enough votes from the Republican majority, which is why GOP leadership hasn’t offered it to move negotiations into high gear.
   What isn’t clear is if there’s any budget proposal that a majority of Republicans would support. So far, Senate President Tim Bee and House Speaker Jim Weiers are refusing to rely on the unified Democrats to get a budget done, which is what happened last year when the budget was adopted on June 26.
   And so the countdown continues with 10 days left until July 1…

Posted in: Arizona Legislature • Arizona government • Governor |

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