Lawmakers eager to fix Arizona's overstretched budget might have to keep their red pens sheathed for now.

At a her weekly press briefing on Nov. 19, Gov. Janet Napolitano said budget meetings with legislative leaders have been productive and that a special session to fix the budget might not happen immediately. 

"I can't say with certainty that there will be a special session right now, but I think and hope that we can announce something in the near future," Napolitano said.

A special session would be necessary to amend the fiscal 2009 budget, and the only question is whether it occurs before the regular session, which starts in January, or concurrently.

Napolitano had resisted calls for a special session before the election, saying it was unlikely that anything could be agreed upon while legislators were still in the midst of campaign season. Following a post-election meeting with House Speaker Jim Weiers and Senate President Tim Bee, Napolitano said they were in agreement that a special session would probably be necessary, but that it shouldn't be held until they had a better idea of what specific steps would have to be taken to repair the budget.

The ongoing recession has made a serious dent in Arizona's revenue projections, leaving the state's $9.9 billion budget for the fiscal year 2009 short by more than $1 billion. Estimates for how short the budget will be have varied, though Napolitano said she and legislative leaders are basing their discussions around an expected $1.2 billion deficit.

If there is a special session, Napolitano said, it would likely be convened to eliminate only a portion of the budget deficit, not the entire $1.2 billion shortfall. The governor cited unanswered questions, such as the possibility of a federal stimulus package to the states and the varying estimates on the exact size of the deficit, as reasons for waiting until the regular legislative session to finish fixing the budget.

"If there's a significant federal stimulus in January or February that pumps cash into states, that makes a big difference," Napolitano said.

The governor also expressed hope that the Congress would help ease the budget problems facing Arizona and most other states with a federal stimulus package. Napolitano recently testified before Congress, requesting that the federal government increase its share of Medicaid payments to ease the program's financial burden on the state. Arizona, she said, has seen a dramatic rise in the number of people enrolling for Medicaid benefits.

The federal assistance that Napolitano is hoping for doesn't end with Medicaid. She said she believes Congress is open to the possibility of passing a stimulus package that would include federal money for infrastructure projects that would bring new jobs to Arizona. For example, the Department of Homeland Security, she said, has identified $500 million worth of needed infrastructure projects on the U.S.-Mexico border that Napolitano said would increase border security and facilitate more trade between the two countries.

"A part of that … would be infrastructure investment with the states on projects that are already ready to go. That would equate immediately into jobs. Jobs equates into salaries. Salary equates into money in people's pockets. Money in people's pockets helps equate to people spending again," Napolitano said.

In October, Napolitano said she was asking the federal government for about $500 million owed to Arizona for costs incurred by the state for housing illegal immigrants in state prisons for the past five years. At the press briefing, the governor indicated that she hadn't forgotten about that debt.

"From my point of the view, the federal government owes the state of Arizona a lot of money, and that has nothing to do with a bailout. That has to deal with an obligation under statute," she said.