Weekly Report

Well, the House tried to pass a budget last week. Negotiations with the Governor broke down as she raised her spending demands, so the House leaders presented what they thought was the best possible budget for passage, having spoken with all Republican members and getting their input. The "budget" is not one bill, but a compilation of 13 separate bills, each voted on separately.

As you may know there are 39 Republicans in the House -- not enough for a veto override, but you would think enough to get 31 "Aye" votes. Twelve of the 13 did pass, some by just the minimum required. The bill that dealt with health and social service issues did not. Four of the Republicans voted against it because they thought it called for too much spending; five voted against because they thought it didn't spend enough. It will be coming up for reconsideration on Tuesday, and perhaps it will get through then.

However, the Senate version differs considerably from the House's, so there is more work to do to resolve the two. The Senate has also passed a larger tax decrease than the House. It may be possible to do what the Senate suggests, as revenues continue to come in higher than projected. The Senate's version calls for a one-year 10% rate reduction (vs. the House's 5% decrease this year and 5% next), plus the elimination of the County Education Equalization Tax (vs. a reduction this year and a further reduction next year). This is a property tax collected by the Counties for the State. The plan is that the uncollected money will be "backfilled" from the General Fund, so there will be no loss to any school district.

I would like to believe that we can reconcile these differences this week, but that doesn't appear likely since we will be working only three days because of the holiday.

Speaking of which, I attended a very moving ceremony at the Arizona Veterans Memorial in Bullhead City. I was privileged to offer a few remarks, as did Mayor Diane Vick. The featured speaker was a local resident who had been a prisoner of the Japanese and who was liberated after the atomic bombs were dropped. I hope everyone had an enjoyable day, but I also hope that no one failed to remember the reason for this day.

Please keep me in your thoughts as we continue to slog our way through this morass. I want to go home!

Until next week,

Nancy