House Speaker Pro Tem Bob Robson leans over to discuss things with a fellow lawmaker on the first day of the 2008 session.

The first day of session was all handshakes, red flowers and hugs and kisses, but the camaraderie that spanned party lines likely will evaporate soon, as lawmakers now turn to crafting solutions for an economic slump that may result in a $2.7 billion shortfall spread over two fiscal years, an issue that perhaps will do more to divide them than bring them together.
Even the most optimistic of legislators — Republican and Democrat, alike — acknowledge balancing the budget will be a difficult process. And the stage is set for a clash between Republican lawmakers and Gov. Janet Napolitano, as each has proposed differing solutions for solving the deficit in the current fiscal year.
The Republican plan, created by the chairmen of each chamber’s appropriations committee, calls for about $600 million of budget cuts as part of a solution for a $970 million shortfall. In contrast, Napolitano’s plan includes only about $200 million in spending reductions, instead relying heavily on borrowing for new school construction and using money from the state’s Rainy Day fund to solve what her office estimates is an $870 million deficit.
Nonetheless, the governor and Republican and Democrat legislative leaders have said they intend to work jointly on an agreement, abandoning the partisan and rhetoric-fueled actions and statements that have defined past budget negotiations.
Rank-and-file legislators, on one hand, seemed cautiously optimistic about how the budget process will unfold.
“It’s going to be painful, it’s going to be difficult — but we can get through this,” said House Minority Whip Steve Gallardo, D-13.
Others, though, said the differences between the opposing plans are too stark to be bridged quickly.
“Clearly, it seems the governor does not recognize the fiscal trouble we’re in,” said Rep. Kirk Adams, R-19. “We start out farther apart than what I would hope for.”
And solving the problem properly will be made even tougher by an abundance of legislators who have no qualms with spending money the state doesn’t have, said Rep. Eddie Farnsworth, R-22.
“We’re paying the price for our insatiable desire to spend,” he said. “Now everybody’s surprised — that’s what’s funny, that everybody’s shocked for having to pay the piper for our fiscal malpractice.”
Farnsworth attributes the problem to a lack of foresight by lawmakers who were more concerned with their own political careers than they were with crafting good policy.
“So many people down here are worried about the politics of today,” he said. “They’re willing to make bad public policy decisions for tomorrow to help them today.”
Chuck Foy, a lobbyist for Communication Workers of America, said the budget crisis will lead to both compromise and consternation. While the three principals in the negotiations — Senate President Tim Bee, House Speaker Jim Weiers and Napolitano — will be forced by the circumstances to work together early, the situation will cause heartburn for state agencies and people who rely on their programs. To avoid derailing the negotiations, Foy said, the two sides need to be conciliatory and not abandon the talks at the first sign of disagreement.
“They’re going to have to all check their egos at the door and ideologies are going to have to take a back seat,” he said.
But the budget for fiscal year 2008 is only half of the battle. After an agreement is reached on how to neutralize that deficit, legislators will have to turn their attentions to the 2009 budget they were always intending to address this year.
“I think the second budget, frankly, is going to be a much tougher nut to crack,” said Rep. Kyrsten Sinema, D-15. “That’s the one that’s going to keep us here.”
That budget, she said, is far more likely to cause gnashing of teeth among lawmakers — especially Democrats, who do not want to see major cuts to social programs — because many of the one-time budget fixes are likely to be implemented in balancing the current budget, and therefore won’t be available for use for the fiscal year 2009 plan. That means the cuts many Democrats fear are more likely to happen.
Sen. Amanda Aguirre, D-24, said the budget process will be a challenge, but she is hopeful cooler heads will prevail and lawmakers will be cognizant of how their decisions affect the quality of life in Arizona.
“It’s always tough,” she said. “But I think, at the end of the day when we end our session, we want to make sure we’ve done the best we could for our citizens.”