Democratic Governor Janet Napolitano and top Republican legislative leaders met Aug. 11 for the first time to discuss possible legislation to replace bills vetoed by Ms. Napolitano in April.

Republicans and Ms. Napolitano traded charges of broken promises after she vetoed Republican-sponsored bills to create a new school choice tax credit and to revamp programs for instruction of students learning the English language.

Attorneys for plaintiffs in a class-action lawsuit challenging the adequacy of the state’s English-learning programs have asked a federal judge to cut off federal highway dollars as a sanction for failing to comply with court orders in the case.

Short Meeting

Ms. Napolitano, Senate President Ken Bennett and House Speakers Jim Weiers met for about 40 minutes. They said later that they reached no decisions, but want to meet again next week to discuss possible legislation on the two education topics as well as several unrelated budget provisions vetoed by Ms. Napolitano.

“We talked about the differences between us, the misunderstandings we have,” Ms. Napolitano said. “We talked generally about things we might be able to do to avoid that in the future.” The governor said it was too soon to tell whether there will be a special session.

“A dead horse is back and alive again,” Mr. Weiers said. “We’re going to go back and ride it again and see where it goes.” —

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