Sen. Jay Tibshraeny, R-Chandler, waits to make a point Tuesday as legislators discuss elements of the budget proposal (Capitol Media Services photo by Howard Fischer).

Frantic budget negotiations continue behind closed doors at the state Capitol at this hour. Rep. David Lujan, D-Phoenix, has sent out word by Twitter that Gov. Jan Brewer is directly involved in trying to convince individual Democrats to vote for at least the proposed sales tax election that could minimize the more than $600 billion in budget cuts.

Meanwhile, the Senate took some votes on unrelated bills and, according to the live Web broadcast, several senators used their speaking time to talk more about the budget. Several Democrats decried the funding reductions and policy changes for school districts, with Sen. Paula Aboud, D-Tucson, describing the proposed budget as “an insult to teachers and to all of the work you do.”

Sen. John Huppenthal, R-Chandler and a likely candidate for schools superintendent next year, defended the Republican approach.
“Those comments are partisan and incorrectly describe what has been done as we have wrapped ourselves around the axle trying to limit cuts to education.,” he said.

Sen. Jay Tibshraeny, R-Chandler, wanted to know why they were taking any votes on unrelated bills. After all, there’s only 9.5 hours until the current fiscal year ends. “Let’s get on with the budget,” Tibshraeny said.