The harried process toward approval of a new $8 billion-plus budget could be called a legislative version of “March Madness.”

The rush to bring the budget to a vote near the Legislature’s goal of the 65th day of the session began around midnight March 15, the 65th day, and ended with the question: Will Governor Napolitano veto some or all of it if additional funds were not provided to expand her voluntary full-day kindergarten program?

The House first introduced an 18-bill budget package, which caused some confusion.

Rep. Russell Pearce, R-18, chairman of one of the House Appropriations committees, said the bills were intended to be “placeholders” awaiting strike-everything amendments, but the text of the Republican budget was mistakenly attached to them.

To correct the problem, the House introduced a new 17-bill package March 16. Barrett Marson, a spokesman for the House majority, said negotiations between House and Senate Republican leaders after the first package was introduced would have resulted in “heavy amending” of the original bills, which may have made things difficult to understand.

“We wanted a fresh start,” he said. “We didn’t want it to get confusing.”

Mr. Pearce said the only bill that was not resubmitted in the second budget package dealt with corporate tax credits, and that it was incorrectly submitted with the first set of bills.

Some representatives, including Tom O’Halleran, R-1, said the process was moving too quickly for members to accurately know what was included in the budget.

“I have a fiduciary responsibility to the citizens to be able to vote on something that I know something about, and right now I’m trying to catch up,” he said March 16. “I haven’t seen any [budget reconciliation bills], we haven’t debated any [budget reconciliation bills], we’re going to have a quick meeting in the caucus, and away you go. That is not the way to deal with an eight-point-something billion-dollar budget process.”

Meanwhile, In The Senate

The Senate, in the meantime, initially used 15 previously filed “technical correction” bills as vehicles to get the budget process moving, later adding tax bills to its package.

Sen. Toni Hellon, R-26, told Arizona Capitol Times she could not support a budget with corporate tax credits for donations to school tuition programs.

Policy statements contained in the budget included permission for the Department of Health to privatize the Arizona State Hospital by Jan. 1, 2006. Sen. Allen, R-8, said a lobbyist is pushing the privatization, adding, “We should not rush into this.”

“I don’t know if that’s a good idea or a bad idea,” she said.

Senate Democrat Leader Linda Aguirre, D-16, was both positive and negative about the budget on March 16, saying it gives Ms. Napolitano a place to start, but that could include a veto over the majority’s position not to provide additional funding to expand full-day K.

“…This is an excellent budget for her to start off with,” Ms. Aguirre said. “Yes, I do want her to veto it so we can start back.”

Ms. Aguirre, who complained that Democrats were “locked out” of the budget process, said she had talked to the Governor’s Office about possible veto strategies, but wouldn’t speculate on whether Ms. Napolitano might veto the education budget, the general appropriations bill or the entire budget.

“That would be risky,” she said of the latter option.

Senate President Ken Bennett, R-1, said the Legislature “wanted to send a message” to state employees by placing their raises as the number one budget item.

Included in the budget are slight raises for all state employees, a $300 million cash payment for new school construction, a $25 million set-aside in tax relief and $45 million to help offset the rising cost of the state’s retirement plan for teachers. Not included in the budget was money for a University of Arizona medical school in downtown Phoenix.

“We were able to bring our spending down, and the Senate rose their spending a little bit,” Mr. Pearce said, referring to initial budget proposals from each chamber released earlier this month.

Some Republican senators pushed for an additional $3 million for general assistance to the poor and another $3 million for rural hospitals.

House Assistant Minority Leader Linda Lopez, D-29, and Ms. Aguirre said the budget would likely not garner the governor’s approval because it does not include eliminating the waiting list for childcare subsidies and more funding for the developmentally disabled.

“I’m fairly confident that, if there’s some things that are not included in the budget that gets sent to her, it’ll probably get sent back to us,” Ms. Lopez said. —