Arizona Capitol Reports Staff//April 18, 2008//[read_meter]
Five state senators on April 17 voted against the proposed fix to this year's $1 billion-plus budget hole, a curious mix of Democrats and Republicans who argued the budget measure falls short, that it is fiscally irresponsible and that it puts off making the tough decisions. Republicans Karen Johnson and Ron Gould joined Democrats Ken Cheuvront, Leah Landrum Taylor and Paula Aboud in opposing H2620, which contains $1.37 billion in agency cuts, K-12 rollover and fund sweeps, and which takes $487 million out of the rainy day fund. Some publicly lamented – and the sentiment was shared by some of those who voted yes – that it took too long for leadership to resolve the fiscal year 2008 deficit, which limited options as the state enters its final quarter. The final Senate vote on H2620 was 24-5. "What you are doing here today is fiscally irresponsible," Gould said. "I did not come down here for smoke-and-mirror solutions. I came down here to balance the budget." Cheuvront said lawmakers did not make the difficult decisions and lamented that the budget bill contains a lot of accounting gimmicks. "All we have done is put off the inevitable," he said. Aboud said the offered fix took too much out of the rainy day fund, potentially putting the state at a disadvantage to deal with an emergency, especially since no one knows exactly what the budget situation will be like next year. Johnson initially indicated she would support the budget. But she said later she was unhappy with the K-12 rollover. "As I thought more about it and I spent time talking to Sen. Gould – and I happen to agree with him – I thought: Why am I doing this? Who am I doing this for? Why should I do this for leadership?" she said. "I have to answer to my constituents, and I don't think they would be very happy with the smoke-and-mirrors in this budget."
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