Here’s a quick look at some interesting news items to wrap up the week:

More budget cutting unravels – The state Supreme Court ruled today the Legislature illegally took $7 million in interest from a special program created by a 2006 initiative to fund early childhood education and health-care programs. Lawmakers knew they couldn’t touch the money raised directly from cigarette taxes assessed as part of 2006 law. But they hoped they could use the bank interest collected on the paid taxes waiting to be spent. The Supreme Court says “no.”

This becomes the latest setback for the Legislature in a series of lawsuits that have challenged various efforts to reduce a multi-billion dollar budget deficit. The courts have said the Legislature can’t force cities to pay back state funds; it can’t take funds paid by farmers and ranchers for specialized research and marketing; and it might not be able to cut programs that serve the disabled. Other challenges still waiting resolution include the removal of funding from Science Foundation of Arizona and the Arizona Industrial Commission. One would wonder if the Legislature has any budgeting authority left, except the courts did rule in favor of the state’s right to reduce wages and layoff employees.

The sales tax question — Many political activists have wondered if Gov. Jan Brewer or anyone else has a clear sense of what the general public wants for potential budget solutions. A new poll released Thursday by the state Realtors’ association suggests that Brewer is on the right track to support a temporary sales tax hike while opposing the Democrats’ proposal to lower the sales tax rate but expand the list of goods and services that are covered (which would ultimately bring in more tax revenue). The survey seems to be reliable (trustworthy polling outfit, statewide and randomly selected participants, tightly worded questions). The only fallacy I noticed is that the poll underrepresented independent voters (only 22 percent of the total questioned vs. 30 percent of all voter registrations). But the huge margins on the two main questions (two-thirds favoring a temporary sales tax increase but opposing a broader tax base with a lower rate) imply that one disparity didn’t affect the results.

But I’m not sure the poll results actually help Brewer’s cause with the Legislature. Democrats want permanent tax reform, not a temporary solution. And some Republicans have been reluctantly coming around to sending Brewer’s proposal to the ballot under the assumption that it would get defeated. Those Republicans might vote against Brewer now on philosophical grounds if there’s a good chance that voters would support the sales tax hike.

The push for ‘racinos’ — At the beginning of the week, the state’s horse and dog tracks launched a publicity campaign to convince lawmakers to allow slot machines and other forms of banned gambling at racetracks, as a alternative way to balance the budget (More taxes would be collected on gaming revenues). The effort includes an online ad appearing at several political news sites featuring the words, “Mine that bird” and “Mine that budget jockey.”

I have no idea what that’s supposed to mean. I didn’t make any connection to the ‘racino’ campaign,  not even with the annoyingly loud sound at the start of the ad that’s apparently a combination of coins dropping and the starting bell of a horse race. But maybe the wording served its purpose, as after seeing it the ad a couple of times I clicked on it to see where the link sent me. I traveled here, a Facebook page called the Race for Revenues where the tracks are making their case with testimonials and fact sheets.