HOUSE SPEAKER JIM WEIERS (at podium)  OUTSIDE STATE CAPITOL (original photo at www.jimweiers.com)
   After working in private all weekend, leadership of the state House Republicans are unveiling today their plan for a new state budget – without the support of the Senate or Gov. Janet Napolitano.
   A news release from House Speaker Jim Weiers, R-Phoenix, says the budget proposal eliminates a $1.9 billion shortfall (some estimates have placed it at $2.2 billion), mostly through budget cuts and by taking money from special funds (which usually are counted as cuts as well by agencies that depend on those special funds). The budget would borrow $500 million for new primary schools, a serious bone of contention for some Republican lawmakers. But the leadership plan apparently would avoid most of the other options proposed by Napolitano to avoid deeper cuts.
   Details will be forthcoming in the next two days, as Weiers said during a news conference broadcast on the Legislature’s Web site that the bills were still being written.
   The news release provides just a handful of highlights:
** K-12 education will receive $4.6 billion or $200 million more than the current year. There wouldn’t be any cuts to basic student aid to school districts, but the news release hints the proposal includes cuts elsewhere that would affect school districts.
** The plan would cut $106 million used to clean litter from highways and landscape maintenance.
** Language in the budget would forbid the governor from applying any funding cuts for Department of Economic Security to one of its divisions – Child Protective Services.
   With a constitutional deadline just seven days away to adopt a new budget, Weiers said it’s time to stop talking behind closed doors and to do something to deal with the issue.
   “Shutting down the government is not an option,” Weiers said in the news conference. “Shut downs constitute failure.”
   But Weiers admitted he doesn’t know if he has enough votes to pass the leadership plan out of the House, much less get very far with the Senate and the governor. Napolitano already has hinted she won’t accept the budget cuts likely included in this plan. And Republicans can’t override any vetoes as long as Democrats remain united behind her.
   Weiers said the House Appropriations Committee will consider the budget bills Wednesday; the same day that the Senate Appropriations Committee is scheduled to hear a proposal for an emergency 30-day budget if comprehensive version can’t be adopted by July 1.

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