Nearly four months after she said she planned on releasing a detailed budget, Gov. Jan Brewer has done so. Her plan bridges an estimated $4 billion budget deficit through increases to the sales and property taxes, borrowing against future Lottery revenue, mortgaging some state buildings and cutting state spending.

It stands in stark contrast to the most recent budget proposal backed by Republican legislative leaders, which includes no tax increases, doesn’t borrow against future Lottery proceeds and cuts spending by about $100 million more. The legislative proposal also aims to shift $190 million in costs to cities and counties and sweeps nearly twice as much from dedicated funds.

Brewer first said she wanted a temporary tax increase of $1 billion to be included in the fiscal 2010 budget on March 4, when she addressed a rare joint legislative session. Since then, GOP lawmakers have made every effort to craft a budget that avoids tax increases and have criticized the Republican governor for wanting to raise taxes.

Brewer’s proposal estimates Arizona could generate nearly $1 billion a year in increased revenues if the state’s sales tax rate were increased from 5.6 percent to 6.6 percent. Doing so would require a two-thirds approval in each legislative chamber, which may make legislating a tax increase politically impossible.

However, it takes only a simple majority in the House and Senate to send a tax-hike proposal to the ballot for a special election later this year. The earliest an election could be held would likely be November, though an official in the governor’s office said there is an outside chance that a late-October election date may be possible.

The sales tax increase in Brewer’s budget plan would last only three years.

Last month, voters in California resoundingly rejected a number of ballot measures aimed at closing that state’s budget deficit through tax increases and borrowing. An official from Brewer’s office said there was no contingency plan in the governor’s proposal, though one would be contemplated during negotiations with legislative leaders.

The governor also is proposing bringing back the state equalization tax, a property tax that was suspended three years ago and is slated to come back this year. However, Brewer would like to phase out the tax over three years, beginning immediately. The budget plan includes two-thirds of the $250 million the full tax would generate if it went back on the books for 2010, with Brewer planning on one-third to be available for 2011 before the tax is permanently repealed the following year.

Additional revenue would be generated by using future state lottery proceeds as collateral for a $450 million loan. Essentially, the state would borrow the money now, then use the annual $45 million of lottery money that goes into the general fund to repay the loan over the next 10 years.

Another $200 million would be created by mortgaging some state properties, including prisons. The move, known as a leaseback, would require the state to sell the buildings, then enter into an agreement to lease them back over a number of years.

The governor’s budget also makes $560 million in new spending reductions. Those come on top of about $360 million in cuts made to the current year’s budget in January as part of an emergency fix. Lawmakers had cut $580 million from this year’s budget, but some of that funding had to be restored.

Another $199 million would be added to the general fund under Brewer’s plan by raiding specialized funds.

In addition to a potential special election on a sales tax increase later this year, Brewer’s budget proposal also calls for a 2010 ballot measure that would reform a constitutional amendment approved by voters in 1998 that prohibits the Legislature from making major changes to voter-approved programs.

Much of the state’s future financial problems will arise from mandated general fund spending in education and public health care that was approved by voters, said Eileen Klein, Brewer’s budget director. The governor’s budget would ask voters in 2010 to require any initiative that was approved between 1998 and 2004 and uses general fund money be re-affirmed by voters in 2012 and use a dedicated funding source.

Items that would need to be approved by voters include 2000’s Proposition 204, which expanded state-run health care, Proposition 301, which mandates annual growth in education funding.

If voters do not approve the programs with new funding sources, then lawmakers would be authorized to amend the program however they see fit.

Legislative leaders have not yet been briefed on the governor’s budget, though they are scheduled to meet with her later today.

Brewer’s proposal comes on the heels of a publicity campaign designed by one of her closest political allies and aimed at persuading lawmakers to support her budget plan that was leaked last week and first reported by the Yellow Sheet Report, an online sister publican of Arizona Capitol Times.

Although the Arizona Constitution requires governors present a budget every January, Brewer did not become governor until after the deadline had passed. Instead, former Gov. Janet Napolitano released the executive branch’s annual budget plan.

In early February, just two weeks after taking office, Brewer said she planned to release a budget proposal of her own, saying she hoped it would be “developed in the near future and presented sometime quickly.” Since then she has provided few details, and over the subsequent months her office said she may not craft a budget proposal of her own.