As Gov. Jan Brewer's office looks toward a second round of cuts for the 2009 budget, the Office of Strategic Planning and Budgeting is asking state agencies to submit lists of new spending priorities.

In a memo sent to agency heads on Feb. 23, OSPB director Eileen Klein said the Governor's Office is looking at a further reduction of about 20 percent from the 2009 budget fix that Brewer signed in late January to help eliminate a $1.6 billion deficit in the fiscal year's budget. The agency heads, Klein said in the memo, must revisit their 2010 budget plans in preparation for additional cuts.

Klein instructed the department heads to prepare lists of proposed budget reductions, prioritized in increments of 5 percent up to 20 percent.

"As the governor has repeatedly stated, ‘Everything is on the table,'" Klein wrote.

Brewer spokesman Paul Senseman said state revenue projections for fiscal 2009 have pushed the deficit even higher than the $1.6 billion shortfall that the Legislature tackled in a special session in January. It now appears revenue will fall short more than $200 million compared to the previous estimate.

Klein told the agency heads that Brewer also wants a factual assessment from all agencies on the impact of the potential budget cuts. Brewer requested that the agencies submit both the lists of proposed cuts and the impact assessments to her office by March 6.

Klein reiterated an oft-repeated assertion by the Brewer administration and Republican legislators that former Gov. Janet Napolitano's budgeting in 2008, and not simply the recession alone, was responsible for Arizona's budget woes.

"Unfortunately, permanent spending commitments based upon faulty or temporary revenues and a bleak economic outlook suggest more difficult times ahead for Arizona," Klein's memo stated.

Another budget revision was already looming, however, as lawmakers admitted making some mistakes during the special session in January. Republicans tried to sweep some funds that could be outside the Legislature's authority, and lawmakers were expecting to revise the fiscal 2009 budget to account for the off-limits funds even prior to the new revenue estimates.