Governor Napolitano’s proclamation for an Oct. 20 special session, published Sept. 30, immediately was criticized by legislative conservatives who said asking the Legislature to approve additional spending without providing permanent revenue sources is asking the virtually impossible in the current tight-budget atmosphere.

The call seeks legislative action in six areas:

Child Protective Services. The governor wants to spend an additional $35.5 million and to refocus the agency to child safety from family reunification. Story, Above.

AHCCCS Payments. The governor proposes to raise part of the money for her CPS program by requiring AHCCCS to make increased payments to county hospitals for indigent care in order to qualify the state for additional federal aid. The net result would be an increase in revenue of about $14 million.

Corrections Department. The governor will seek a supplemental appropriation of more than $26 million to add prison beds and guards immediately, plus a pay-over-time program that would cost more than $700 million over 15 years. Story, Page 5.

Tax Collections. The governor wants the Legislature to appropriate $5 million to add auditors and collectors at the Department of Revenue to increase tax revenue collection by a net $10 million. She also wants the Legislature to repeal the $5 minimum income-tax withholding provision it passed as part of H2533 in the budget package last session.

Judicial Collections. This item was added to the call at the request of House Speaker Jake Flake. It would revise or repeal another section of H2533, one that requires the transfer to the state of as much as $45 million a year in county and city judicial fines, fees and surcharges.

Compensation Fund. This relates to a requirement the Legislature passed in special session in March for the state Compensation Fund to transfer $50 million to the general fund and in return receive state land and buildings to be identified later. The Compensation Fund has filed a lawsuit saying it cannot transfer entrusted monies without adequate protection. The governor wants the Legislature to enact a version of general session H2195, which was rewritten in the Senate to state that the fund’s assets are a separate trust held to pay workers’ compensation claims, to forbid the state from impairing the assets of the fund, and to require the Department of Administration to give the state Compensation Fund property worth at least 125 per cent of any amount taken from the Compensation Fund for the general fund. The bill died in the House after the Senate rewrote it. Story, right.

Session Starts Oct. 20 And Lasts Until?

The session convenes on Monday, Oct. 20, at 11 a.m. It will be the Second Special Session for this Legislature (the first, last March, re-balanced the budget). There is no limit on special-session length, no requirement for the session to enact any bills, and, should the session drag on, no restriction on running a special session at the same time as the regular general session, which convenes on Jan.12. —