Wow! Gov. Jan Brewer must be mad. On Monday, she summoned the media to tell state Senate President Bob Burns, R-Peoria, he had until 5 p.m. today to send to her desk the package of budget bills recently adopted by the Republican majority of the Legislature. If he didn’t, Brewer promised to go to court to force the delivery of those bills under the state constitution. But now Brewer has called another press conference at 11 a.m. today, this time inside the building that houses the Arizona Supreme Court. I guess she’s not going to bother to wait until the end of the day to request that the high court intervene. There’s only 14 days left until a possible government shutdown, after all.
Arizona Chief Justice Ruth McGregor is scheduled to retire from the Supreme Court on July 1. The courts have been wrestling with a number of lawsuits challenging specific budget cuts already imposed by the Legislature and governor. But I can’t imagine McGregor expected her final weeks to include mediating a high-level fight between the other two branches of state government over the fundamental responsibility of adopting a state budget.
UPDATE: The Associated Press is reporting that Gov. Brewer did file a special-action motion with the Supreme Court. Brewer says Republican legislative leaders appear willing to wait to send the budget bills until June 30 (last day of the fiscal year), trying to force her to sign the package without any substantial changes to avoid a government shutdown.
SECOND UPDATE: Capitol Media Services is reporting the state Supreme Court will hear arguments in this case on June 22 (next Tuesday). Does that push the countdown clock fast-forward to eight days left?
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Dear Governor Brewer, just sign or veto the budget sent to you. It is quite obvious at your prior attempts to help that you are no different than the prior tax and spend liberal in your position. Sign or veto please, you have no other contribution to the crisis at this point. Thank you, a concerned taxpayer.
I wouldn’t want to cross Brewer! What a mess…waiting for updates!
AZMesa, take two seconds please and read the post you are commenting on. When finished, start over and read again. Maybe then, you will realize what the lawsuit is about. She can’t approve or veto a bill she doesn’t have. The Legislature has refused to send it to her even though they approved it.
If you still have questions, just post on here that you do not understand and my 4th grader will walk you through it.