¬Senate Majority Whip Pam Gorman suggests tax increases won’t be part of the budget fix, speaking to reporters Jan. 20 at a GOP Senate leadership news conference. Behind her is Senate President Bob Burns.

The Senate's top Republican said tax increases are not being considered as a way to solve the state's financial shortfall, stressing that the massive budget deficits facing the states were the direct result of overspending in recent years.

"We are looking at the overspending problem," Senate President Bob Burns said. "That is where our focus is."

Senate Majority Whip Pamela Gorman, a Republican from Anthem, said the Republican caucus would likely reject any move to increase revenues to preserve government programs or to ask voters to approve a temporary tax increase.

"I wouldn't get excited about writing about tax increases a whole lot this session," she said at a Jan. 20 press conference.

Burns also addressed the proposal put forward last week by the chairmen of the House and Senate Appropriations committees, which included $900 million in budget cuts to K-12 education in the upcoming fiscal year that were proposed by the House and Senate chairmen of the budget committees.

Burns rejected the idea that Arizona's education funding is lacking and should be preserved from cuts.

"If you only have ‘X' dollars and they are spending ‘Y,' then they are clearly overspending," he said.