Sen. Pamela Gorman
Gov. Jan Brewer is trying to reach a deal with the top two legislative leaders to call budget special session this month and reduce at least some of the projected $2 billion deficit. While everyone else waits, some key players are positioning themselves for what comes next.
Sen. Pamela Gorman, R-Anthem, has decided to publicly defend her colleagues from accusations that the Legislature refuses to address the budget crisis. Gorman took offense at a recent media column that suggested lawmakers have been sitting on their hands while the deficit climbs.
She fired both barrels at the Arizona Daily Star in Tucson (a popular target among Republicans). But the Daily Star apparently just linked to a column from Mark Evans at the Tucson Citizen web site, who referred to a “chicken Legislature.” However, Gorman’s underlying point still applies: Just because a journalist doesn’t like the strategies used by the GOP majority shouldn’t be a license to claim the Legislature has done nothing.
The Legislature adopted a budget twice that its analysts said were balanced (with revenue estimates that turned out to be too optimistic), but Brewer’s various vetoes kept adding more spending to the bottom line.
Of course, Gorman was blamed in various corners for those vetoes, as she was one of two Republicans who refused to join their colleagues in supporting Brewer’s call for an election on a temporary sales tax increase. That opposition was just enough to block the election proposal, which could have balanced out many of the proposed budget cuts the governor later vetoed.
Meanwhile, Senate President Bob Burns, R-Peoria, has re-emphasized his willingness to champion a sales tax election again. Burns was careful not to say he supports a sales tax increase. But reading between the lines, he seems to believe an election is the only route to closing the huge political divide in the Legislature that has made budget solutions so difficult to obtain. Whether a sales tax passes or fails, the voters would give some clear guidance to lawmakers about what they want to happen.
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