The final piece of the Legislature’s budget puzzle fell into place in the early morning hours of May 13, but there’s a hitch.

Because no bipartisan agreement was reached on the bill that attempts to meet requirements set forth by a judge in the Flores v. Arizona lawsuit, a budget deal struck between the governor and Republican leaders may unravel.

By largely party-line votes of 17-5 in the Senate and 34-19 in the House, H2718 was sent to Governor Napolitano. The governor said a bipartisan Flores bill was part of the overall budget deal she struck with Republican leadership and, because the Republicans did not cooperate with Democrats on the bill, she said May 13 she would look at the entire budget package before deciding whether to sign it.

Capitol observers have speculated that the governor will veto H2718, the Flores bill, and S1527, which establishes a corporate tuition tax credit program that would allow companies to divert their tax liability to student tuition organizations to provide scholarships for needy students to attend private schools. Ms. Napolitano’s apparent acquiescence to S1527 in early May seemed to many lawmakers to be a tradeoff for receiving $17 million for expanding full-day kindergarten and $7 million to fund a downtown Phoenix medical school.

However, a Republican leader who did not wish to be identified said the deal with the governor was only that the Legislature would develop a plan that would satisfy the court’s demands. If Democrats signed on to the plan, the source said, that would have been a bonus, but the fact that they did not is not a deal-breaker.

House Speaker Jim Weiers said as much when he spoke with Ms. Napolitano on the air during her weekly radio appearance May 18 on KJZZ. During the show, Mr. Weiers called in and confronted the governor, saying that there was no connection between the Flores bill and any portion of the budget.

Ms. Napolitano disagreed, saying, “When we broke up, it was very clear that part of the budget [deal] was you would negotiate the Flores bill with the Democrats in the Legislature, and, for whatever reason, that didn’t occur.”

***Governor Has Until May 25 To Sign Budget Bills***

H2718, along with the 19 other budget bills, was sent to the governor May 13, hours after the Legislature adjourned sine die and ended the first regular session of the 47th Legislature. Ms. Napolitano has until May 25 to take action on the bills; she has the option of signing them into law, vetoing them or doing nothing, in which case they would become law without her signature after the May 25 deadline passes.

Barrett Marson, a spokesman for the House Republicans, said legislative leaders “fully expect” all of the budget bills, including H2718, will be signed.

“We simply expect the governor to live up to the deal that we had,” he said.

If the governor vetoes the Flores bill, she has the option of calling the Legislature back into a special session to deal with the issue again.

The federal court said that Arizona must comply with the court order by the end of the session or risk losing federal funding for state programs.

***What Flores Does***

The Flores bill establishes an Arizona English-language learners task force, which is charged with developing research-based models of structured English immersion for English-language learners, or ELL, students in Arizona public and charter schools. The task force is also responsible for reviewing the models every five years and determining the incremental cost increases for the models.

Each school district or charter school governing board will be required to adopt an English immersion model to implement on a school-by-school basis. The Arizona Department of Education (ADE), in conjunction with the Auditor General’s Office, will determine the way in which the models will be implemented in the classroom and the curriculum for each school.

The bill also eliminates Group B weights for ELL students, which currently provide school districts with a set amount of funding per ELL student. Instead, it creates the Arizona Structured English Immersion Fund, from which the ADE will distribute money to school districts and charter schools. The amount of money given to each school is dependent on what the actual cost is to implement the English immersion plan above and beyond the state funding the school already receives.

H2718 appropriates $10 million from the general fund to ADE for distribution of grants to school districts and charter schools from the statewide compensatory fund. The Education Department will also transfer $13.5 million to the General Fund, which will then be appropriated back to ADE to pay teachers for reimbursement for acquiring a bilingual education or English immersion endorsement.

Further, $7 million from the general fund and $6.5 million from the budget stabilization fund are appropriated to increase the support level for school districts and charter schools with ELL students.

A clause in the bill also states that if the courts decide the bill does not fulfill a federal court order to improve education for ELL students, the provisions establishing the base support level for school districts and the appropriation in increasing the support level for schools will be not enacted.

***Democrat: Negotiations Were ‘Farce’***

One Democrat said negotiating meetings on the bill with Republican leadership last week were a farce. House Minority Leader Linda Lopez, D-29, said Democrats brought four different counter proposals to the table, while the Republicans were willing to compromise on nothing.

“I feel like I was treated less than the dirt under the entrance mat to your doorway,” she said during the floor vote of H2718. “I can’t believe that we were treated like this. I’m quite angry, frankly.”

Ms. Lopez said the legislation would not meet the requirements of the court order handed down by a federal court in 2001.

**Attorney Could Ask Court To Impose Fines***

The lawyer who brought the case to court agreed. Tim Hogan, director of the Arizona Center for Law in the Public Interest, said he would consider asking the court to impose sanctions against the state, including daily fines for being in violation of the order and the withholding of federal highway funds, if the bill becomes law. If the governor vetoes the bill and calls a special session, Mr. Hogan said he would wait to see what new legislation was produced before returning to court, an option he said was a “last resort.”