Governor Napolitano this week wondered aloud what the Legislature is up to, telling reporters her office is looking into ways to deal with running state government without a budget for the new fiscal year.
“Where are you?” she asked at a briefing June 7. “What are you doing? What are you doing to keep your members here to vote?”
A new state budget, which must be enacted by July 1, has been in limbo for more than a week after negotiations with the governor broke off and the Senate added more than $200 million to the House’s near $10 billion budget plan. Lawmaker absences in the House prevented action on the budget this week, but Republican leaders say budget bills and immigration will be considered the week of June 12.
“I am ready to negotiate a budget at the drop of a hat,” said Ms. Napolitano, who vetoed an immigration package this week, calling it a “crummy bill.”
“They haven’t done the basic work of government,” Ms. Napolitano said.
Republican leaders are considering drafting a referendum for the general election ballot on illegal immigration. It’s not a matter of whether there will be such legislation, but what it will contain, a Senate aide said.
Providing no details, Ms. Napolitano said she is preparing for the possibility that a budget won’t be enacted in time for the new fiscal year.
“You begin looking at options, and we are looking at some options,” she said, adding that the Legislature has been dealing with minor issues, such as having the American flag in all classrooms, instead of sending her a budget.
Department notifies suppliers: Don’t expect payment
The House on June 8 passed a supplemental appropriations bill for departments that need extra money in the final weeks of the current fiscal year and sent it to the governor, who the same day said the Department of Corrections (DOC) was already notifying food suppliers and other vendors that the agency wouldn’t be able to make the next set of payments because the Legislature hadn’t approved the $58.2 million supplemental appropriations bill, H2864.
The supplemental appropriations bill includes nearly $10 million for DOC and redirects another $10 million already in the department’s budget. The agency needs extra cash to pay for officer overtime and health care costs.
The bill also provides supplemental funding for the Arizona Health Care Cost Containment System, the state court system and the departments of Administration, Education, Health Services and Revenue.
A spokesman for the Republican majority said leaders decided to hold the vote before they knew of Ms. Napolitano’s criticism.
Ms. Napolitano said she is willing to talk about tax cuts as long as they are balanced with spending needs for education and transportation, but not reductions as large as the one-year, $500 million approved by the Senate. The House approved a similar amount over two years.
“They don’t want to have that conversation, but we’re going to have to have that conversation,” she said. “This tax cut, in my view, is a raid on Arizona’s savings accounts.”
The governor said she’s open to a property cut broader than the expansion of an existing tax break for seniors she previously proposed.
”We could work out something with the property tax as something lower than $500 (million), then I think we could be having a negotiation, but I haven’t seen that yet from the House or Senate,” Ms. Napolitano said.
Majority whip blasts Napolitano for ‘my way or the highway’ attitude
House Majority Whip Gary Pierce, R-19, said he thought the governor was speaking out against the budget bills now in order to set up an eventual veto. He said making such comments before the bills are on her desk essentially forces her to veto the bills, regardless of what changes are made to the budget between now and then.
“That, to me, is a shameful tactic, if she’s doing that,” he said. “I hope she will look for the good in what we do.”
Mr. Pierce also criticized Ms. Napolitano for her “my way or the highway” style of negotiating.
“It can’t be all her way,” he said. “The simple fact is, the governor can’t write [the budget] herself, and I can’t write it myself. When we get our votes, it’s not perfect for us. It doesn’t need to be perfect for her.”
Legislative leaders say they are finished negotiating with Ms. Napolitano on the budget.
House and Senate leaders have been meeting regularly since June 1 as the House faces a vote on whether to concur or reject Senate changes. If the House refuses, a conference committee will be appointed to iron out the differences.
House Majority Leader Steve Tully, R-11, said that, after the two sides work things out they will present the budget to the governor, but will not negotiate any changes.
Mr. Pierce said, “We’ve already moved as far as we’re going to move. Enough time has been spent trying to work out a compromise with the governor.”
Many lawmakers cancel conference dates
He said the goal was for the House and Senate to approve a final budget June 14 or 15.
Although there had been concerns that too many lawmakers would be absent in the coming weeks to get the needed votes on a budget, Mr. Pierce said he expects almost all Republican representatives to be present. Several, he said, were canceling plans to attend out-of-town conferences.
“These people understand their responsibilities,” Mr. Pierce said.
Immigration and the ballot
If the Legislature decides to take immigration to the ballot, Ms. Napolitano said, “Arizonans will see through employer amnesty,” referring to what she called the vetoed bill’s employer sanction provisions.
“I’m certainly not going to indemnify employers and pay for their attorney’s fees if they hire illegal immigrants, which is what their bill did.”
Ms. Napolitano has declined to specify the punishments she wants the Legislature to set for employers who hire illegal immigrants. She criticized a provision in the bill that would have set fines for employers who continue illegal hirings after receiving warnings. She had said businesses that heed warnings to stop the practice could continue operating as if nothing happened.
In her State of the State speech Jan. 12, Ms. Napolitano said employers who intentionally hire illegal immigrants ought to face “substantial fines and penalties.”
The governor voiced support June 7 for having employers verify the employment eligibility of workers, as she has required for all new state employees, but wouldn’t detail the types of penalties she wants for hiring illegal immigrants.
“I am not going to negotiate a bill here at this desk,” Napolitano told reporters. “I am willing to sit down with legislators and talk about sanctions, but I’m not going to do that right now.”
House Speaker Jim Weiers said the governor hasn’t shared with Republican legislative leaders her thoughts on punishments for illegal hirings.
Senate President Ken Bennett said Ms. Napolitano pretends to care about illegal immigration.
“For the governor to pretend she cares about doing something, while continually refusing to act is unconscionable,” he said. “The people of Arizona deserve action to stem the tide of illegal immigration — one way or another, this needs to happen.”
Ms. Napolitano also said the sanctions section was unacceptable because it would have shielded employers from lawsuits brought by workers they fire after the business is told to stop hiring illegal immigrants.
The vetoed bill on would have required businesses to fire employees whose Social Security numbers are invalid. Illegal immigrants frequently use forgeries to meet federal employment eligibility requirements. It also would have let state prosecutors seek civil penalties as high as $5,000 and suspend or revoke business licenses if an employer under investigation fails to follow an order to stop employing illegal workers.
The Associated Press contributed to this article.