Capitol Media Services is reporting that legislative leaders are now working seriously on a temporary budget, one that would fund government for a few weeks, to avoid a potential shutdown when the new fiscal year starts July 1. The news is a clear sign that House Speaker Kirk Adams and Senate President Bob Burns don’t yet have enough votes to support the deal they struck with Gov. Jan Brewer less than 48 hours ago. Rep. Chad Campbell, D-Phoenix, certainly believes that, telling people in the overflow room where I’m watching the hearing that the House will stop debate today after the appropriations committee ends its meeting.
 Archive for the 'Bob Burns' TagState budget countdown: They have a deal, now what?June 26th, 2009, 12:59 pm by Le Templar State lawmakers hope to avoid a government budget shutdown, and new protest rallies like this one in January (Darryl Webb/Tribune file photo). New details are emerging about the “handshake deal” that Gov. Jan Brewer struck Thursday with Senate President Bob Burns and House Speaker Kirk Adams. Capitol Media Services reports Republican lawmakers would get $600 million in real spending cuts to help eliminate a $3 billion deficit, and possibly a brand new income tax code with the same flat rate for everyone. Brewer would get her November statewide election on a temporary 1-cent sales tax increase. If that tax increase were adopted, most of the $600 million in spending cuts would restored. The big problem with this plan? Several Republicans, including Sen. Russell Pearce, R-Mesa, have said they won’t support possible new taxes under any circumstances. Unless Burns and Kirk make a compelling case that the other changes would eliminate the impact of the sales tax increase, the deal won’t bring in enough Republican votes to pass the Legislature. On the other hand, Democrats want to avoid those spending cuts. But they are angry that Brewer, Burns and Adams have largely excluded Democrats from the budget talks for months. Democrats will demand serious changes to the budget plan in exchange for their votes, and that likely would drive Republicans away. Brewer, Burns and Adams have until Monday to get out of this quandary, as enough lawmakers are now absent for previously scheduled trips there’s little hope for a final budget vote until then anyway. (Although the Legislature is scheduled to work Saturday, a rare circumstance indeed). That means we are four days away and counting from a possible government shutdown. State budget countdown updateJune 25th, 2009, 5:44 pm by Le TemplarI usually don’t report rumors. But a couple of us in the Tribune newsroom are hearing from different news sources (and seeing reported elsewhere as rumors) that Gov. Jan Brewer has a “handshake deal” on the budget with Senate President Bob Burns and House Speaker Kirk Adams that they are trying to sell to the Republican majority in the Legislature. The Arizona Guardian says they “are nearing a tentative deal” that includes removing a proposed three-year moratorium on all local construction impact fees. That moratorium has been pushed hard by the Home Builders Association of Central Arizona as an economic stimulus to its industry, but is fiercely opposed by cities and counties. Capitol Media Services correspondent Howard Fischer told me that Burns and Adams intend for lawmakers to work Friday and Saturday. A successful push on the budget could allow the Legislature to end its regular session in two days. If not, the end of the fiscal year, and a possible government shutdown, is just five days away. State budget countdown: The branches are separate and co-equalJune 23rd, 2009, 10:00 am by Le Templar
Many observers expect the Arizona Supreme Court to listen politely this morning to arguments between lawyers for Gov. Jan Brewer and legislative leaders, and then refuse to get involved in their budget fight. I’m not so sure. The governor’s legal counsel, Joe Kanefield, has filed a couple of strong briefs explaining why Brewer is convinced Senate President Bob Burns is violating the state constitution by not sending her the budget bills given final approval on June 4. The state constitution says “when” bills are passed by both chambers of the Legislature on roll call votes, such bills “shall” be presented to the governor. But the constitution provides no deadline for that to happen. Burns and House Speaker Kirk Adams are arguing they get to decide “when” occurs, and that could be as late as when the Legislature adjourns the session. The fallacy in that argument is the Legislature could, in theory, never adjourn, and therefore legislative leaders could refuse forever to send the governor an adopted bill. That would render specific language in the state constitution meaningless, which the Supreme Court rightly refuses to do. Burns and Adams appear to be in the weaker legal position. But they are depending on the five justices to view this as a political spat between the governor and the Legislature, not a constitutional crisis that requires court intervention. The Supreme Court has taken that stance before on some disputes between the legislative and executive branches, especially on time-sensitive matters. As the fiscal year ends in just seven days (presumably the Legislature will send Brewer the budget bills at some point before then), the court could stand aside and let the politics play out. We should know rather quickly, in a day or two, as the Supreme Court has a habit of immediately issuing instructions in these types of cases, followed several months later with a formal opinion that explains the court’s reasoning. State budget countdown: The trailer billJune 19th, 2009, 4:18 pm by Le Templar The typical trailer bill in the state Legislature winds up looking like this (Thomas Boggan/Tribune file photo). Gov. Jan Brewer has sued the Legislature to get her hands on a package of budget bills, claiming Republicans leaders could keep them until June 30 in an attempt to compel her to sign the measures to avoid a government shutdown. Given Brewer’s lengthy political experience, I have to believe she has a good idea what some Republican lawmakers are thinking. But there’s also a more noble reason for Senate President Bob Burns, R-Peoria, to hold on to the budget bills until an deal is reached with Brewer — the trailer bill. This term refers to a piece of legislation that “trails” along after approved bills with the intent of solving a political problem. One typical example is the governor wants a few items changed in a complex, important bill headed to her desk and, without those changes, she’ll veto the entire thing. Ignoring the governor’s wishes means legislative leaders would have to seek an veto override, or rework the bill after spending months to win enough votes for passage in the Senate and House. As an alternative, legislative leaders promise to send the governor a new bill, a trailer, that corrects the few concerns she has about the original legislation. In theory, the governor can safely sign the first bill knowing that what she doesn’t like will be removed or changed almost immediately with the trailer bill. (Trailer bills also have been connected to disputes between the Senate and House over proposals that already have moved through most of the legislative process and sponsors desperately want to get to the governor’s desk before a session ends). I don’t know how long the Arizona Legislature has used trailer bills, but they had a dismal track record during the Janet Napolitano years. The timing between an approved bill and its trailer never seemed to work out, and the trailer bill would get dumped under pressure to wrap up the regular session. Napolitano always could wield the veto stamp to block what she didn’t like. But rank-and-file Republican lawmakers who counted on trailer bills to deliver something they wanted out of negotiations with Napolitano or legislative leaders got left out in the cold. A key downfall for trailer bills is once a bill is sent to the governor, she has five days to act on the legislation or it automatically becomes law. Few new bills can get through the legislative process in that time. Burns’ handling of this year’s budget bills solves that problem. Assuming the Legislature and Brewer eventually agree to changes in the current $8.2 billion plan that can be handled with trailer bills, Burns could wait until the trailer bills are approved and send the whole package to Brewer at the same time. So the question is, can that be done before the fiscal year ends in 11 days, especially now that negotiations between the governor and Legislature have been suspended until Monday, according to news alerts from The Associated Press and Capitol Media Services? State budget countdown: Ideas to avoid a shutdownJune 18th, 2009, 5:21 pm by Le Templar Current Gov. Jan Brewer and predecessor Janet Napolitano As the June 30 deadline approached for adopting a state budget in 2008, there was plenty of discussion around the state Capitol about the possibility of a government shutdown once spending authority had expired. Then-Gov. Janet Napolitano claimed to have a plan to keep most agencies functioning, but never publicly disclosed it. Sen. Bob Burns, R-Peoria, then-chairman of the Senate Appropriations Committee, said he said a draft bill that would offer “bare-bones” funding for one month only for the most critical areas. But the public never saw that plan either. In the end, it didn’t matter, as the Legislature and Napolitano finally agreed to a $11 billion budget three days before the fiscal year ran out. Now in 2009, with the same deadline just 12 days away, our state leaders have picked up where they left off a year ago. This time, Burns as Senate president is looking at a temporary proposal to fund all of state government at current levels, similar to the continuing spending resolutions adopted every year by Congress because it never adopts a complete budget before a new fiscal year starts. In his role as Senate Appropriations chairman, Russell Pearce, R-Mesa, still wants to go with the “bare bones” approach with funding only for public safety and education. And current Gov. Jan Brewer is rapidly putting together her own plans, in case the Legislature fails to send her any acceptable spending proposal by July 1. Unlike Napolitano, Brewer’s administration is releasing at least a few details about what would happen with a government shutdown. But it appears Republican leaders in the Legislature might be serious this year about avoiding the worst-case scenarios if July 1 arrives without an adopted budget. State budget countdown: Bring on the judge!June 16th, 2009, 10:38 am by Le Templar
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? Budget battle boils over; 15 days left until shutdownJune 15th, 2009, 4:36 pm by Le Templar Gov. Jan Brewer (left) met with the hastily assembled news media Monday at the state Capitol to vent about the lack of progress in budget talks with Republican legislators (Photo by Capitol Media Services). When I left the East Valley a week ago to visit good ol’ mom in Oregon, the Arizona Legislature had finally adopted a state budget and intense negotiations were underway with Gov. Jan Brewer. There were even hints that Republican leaders were willing to let voters weigh in on Brewer’s proposal for a temporary, $1 billion sales tax increase to keep state finances afloat. I figured some kind of deal would be struck while I was wandering the beaches of Duck and Beaver country and the Legislature now would be rushing to close down the 2009 regular session. Instead when I returned to the office today, the governor called a last-minute press conference and threatened to sue Senate President Bob Burns, R-Peoria, for not sending her those approved budget bills, just so she can veto them in disgust from their bogged-down talks. As I was sitting down to write this post in reaction to that news, I received a statement from Democrat Jim Pederson, an unannounced candidate for governor (or some other statewide office). He managed to quickly capture a lot of my thoughts, so here’s what he said:
I’ll avoid misquoting Yogi Berra. But a similar dispute broke out in mid-June last year between the Legislature and then-Gov. Janet Napolitano. I started a daily countdown to the end of the fiscal year and a possible shutdown of state government. Given today’s events, I’m winding up that clock again. House Speaker Kirk Adams, R-Mesa, said that Brewer’s threat to go court Tuesday makes a shutdown a real possibility, according to the Associated Press. Just like last year, Brewer might be working on contingency plans for stopping nonessential government functions, if she and lawmakers can’t reach a deal by June 30. But she’s not revealing any details yet. Let’s see if the state leaders see the light in time, or if politics will collide into constitutional deadlines and Arizona’s fiscal obligations. It’s March 9, where is your Legislature?March 9th, 2009, 3:44 pm by Le Templar
Today is supposed to mark the halfway point of the regular session of the Arizona Legislature. Senate and House committees have finished their work on the original bills assigned to them and have moved on to measures that started in the other chamber. Lawmakers are engaged in high-minded debate related to hot button issues such as abortion, climate change, protecting gun ownership, right-sizing government and complying with constitutional principles … Huh? What? Oh, sorry. I must have dozed off for a moment and was having the most interesting dream. Today is supposed to mark the halfway point of the regular session of the Arizona Legislature, and not much is happening at the state Capitol — except lawmakers from all sides continue to heap criticism on Gov. Jan Brewer’s still undefined plan to resolve the state’s budget crisis. Bills are going nowhere, and gambling types are taking odds that lawmakers will be at their desks in August. Things are so quiet that one of the Legislature’s more prominent and active Democrats is taking the week off to travel to the Middle East. Personally, I’m tempted to declare Brewer’s budget agenda all but dead. Senate President Bob Burns, R-Peoria, said today he can’t support a special election this spring on either a $1 billion temporary tax increase or on repealing portions of the 1998 Voter Protection Act so that lawmakers would have more flexibility to adjust spending formulas for K-12 and early childhood education and health care for the poor. The main hesitation I have is Burns and the rest of Republican leadership have yet to publicly present a budget proposal that eliminates a projected $3 billion deficit without either of those alternative tools. So Brewer’s GOP colleagues possibly still could come around, maybe. However, Burns has stayed firm to his committment not to allow any bills to be heard in the Senate until the budget problems are solved. So it seems Brewer and anyone who thinks like her (is there anyone at this point?) will have to somehow work around him. That means a budget deal is still weeks or months away. How much can I bet that the session will last until Sept. 1? All state budget talk, all the timeJanuary 3rd, 2009, 12:30 pm by Le Templar
The winter holidays are over, a New Year has arrived, and much of Arizona’s political attention now turns the pending opening of a new Legislature followed shortly thereafter by a new governor (unless Janet Napolitano unexpectedly runs into confirmation problems with the U.S. Senate). This could be a legislative session unlike any other in living memory — if incoming Senate President Bob Burns has anything to say about it. Burns has pledged to prevent any bill from reaching the Senate floor until the Legislature has addressed the state’s massive budget problems. This promise hasn’t really discouraged rank-and-file lawmakers from writing up bills, with House members filing more than 900 proposals and the Senate adding another 550 so far. Legislative leaders have tried before to halt all business to compel lawmakers to focus on budget matters like a laser. One prominent example was in 2002, when all bills were frozen in their tracks mid-session for about three weeks. While this tactic makes lots of common sense to outsiders, it never has worked as legislative leaders intend. As a budget deal wasn’t immediately forthcoming, those lawmakers not involved in the closed-door negotiations (and that would be most of them) would get bored and then anxious about their special bills slowing twisting in the wind. They would start linking their support for specific budget proposals to getting their own bills moving again. Legislative leaders couldn’t appear to be giving special treatment, so they turned the spout on again, bills resumed flowing through the legislative session, and the budget would again be rushed to a finish at the end of the session. However, it could be much different this year. Burns strikes me as committed enough or stubborn enough to withstand psychological pressure for a long time. He will have a loyal ally in this endeavor with his appropriations chairman, Sen.-elect Russell Pearce, R-Mesa, who has pointed out repeatedly that adopting a balanced budget is the only action that the Legislature is required to do by the state constitution. And at the outset, Democratic leaders Rep. David Lujan and Sen. Jose Luis Garcia have said they support no action on non-budget bills until the fiscal woes are handled. It’s going to hard for them to take back these public statements later and criticize Burns or incoming House Speaker Kirk Adams, R-Mesa, for holding up measures not directly related to spending or taxes. In January and February, we should see one of the most interesting sets of early days in a legislative session in Arizona history.
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