State budget deal near; but who gets cut?

With the clock ticking to the new fiscal year that begins July 1, and the threat of state employees not getting a paycheck next week, Speaker of the Arizona House of Representatives Jim Weiers yesterday announced a budget proposal to bridge the state's roughly $2.2 billion budget deficit. However, it remains to be seen whether Weiers has the votes to pass the budget through his House of Representatives, let alone through the Senate, where Senate President (and congressional candidate) Tim Bee has put together an alternate budget proposal, that appears to be more to the Governor's liking as well. Weiers held a press conference yesterday, while Bee will announce his this morning. Votes are likely tomorrow.

So what's the difference? The Bee/Napolitano proposal relies a little more on borrowing, and appears to not entirely close the full $2.2 billion deficit as required by the state constitution. Bee and Napolitano's proposal will likely rely on revenue estimates from April of what the state will take in for tax collections, rather than more up to date estimates that show a slowing economy producing less tax revenue. If the latest estimates turn out to be true, the legislature will have to "fix" the new budget in the middle of the fiscal year, meaning sometime after the election. Can you blame them for not wanting to make the difficult decisions before the election? Well, perhaps you can. Meanwhile, Speaker Weiers makes those difficult decisions in his budget proposal. Well, Weiers' budget only involves difficult decisions if you think it was difficult for him to propose eliminating health insurance for 14,000 low-income parents and several hundred low-income pregnant women. Details of the cuts in each proposal are still forthcoming.