Gov. Jan Brewer said she is compiling a list of state assets that could be sold to raise some quick cash – a possible budget solution being touted by some conservative lawmakers as an alternative to her proposed temporary tax hike.

During a speech at a Phoenix Rotary 100 luncheon on March 27, Brewer said her office is working on the list, which will be delivered to legislative leadership.

"We have gone through and looked at a lot of (assets) of which we knew people were interested in, and some of those just aren't feasible. But that, of course, will be compiled," Brewer said.

Several Republican legislators, such as Rep. John Kavanagh, have voiced their support for selling and leasing back some state assets and selling others outright. Brewer said not every option that is being proposed is feasible, pointing to calls from some lawmakers to sell and lease back state prisons.

She said the only prison in the state that could realistically be sold is the facility in Yuma. Selling that prison, she said, could bring in as much as $70 million if a buyer could be found, but the governor questioned whether the one-time money would be worth it in the long-haul.

Brewer cast a skeptical eye toward the sale of state assets, recalling that some of her fellow lawmakers wanted the state to sell Veterans Memorial Coliseum when she first came to the Legislature in 1983.

"For years that thing has been on the sales block. Nobody wants the darn thing because it's full of asbestos and it's going to cost them too much money to do anything with it," Brewer said. "So it just sort of sits over there, and every year you get legislators (saying) let's sell it, and we go through that same process, but nothing ever happens.

"Certainly today I don't know if anybody would go in there and buy it because property, if you have not noticed, has kind of went down. And the cost and the regulation that we've incurred from the EPA, etc., has gone up. So when you have both those driving forces, it's kind of a dead horse before you even begin."

-See story "Support for temporary tax increase brewing" at http://www.azcapitoltimes.com/story.cfm?ID=10830

-For a breakdown of the GOP budget proposal, go to: "http://www.azcapitoltimes.com/story.cfm?ID=10831