A special session to deal with agency funding and other loose ends from the budget may still happen this week, but according to Gov. Jan Brewer’s travel itinerary, she’s planning for the likelihood that it won’t.

Brewer is scheduled to be in Austin, Texas, on Nov. 18-19, for the Republican Governors Association’s annual conference. That would leave Brewer outside the state for two of the three days lawmakers had been preparing to come in for a special session that was originally expected to begin Nov. 17.

Brewer spokesman Paul Senseman said the governor is willing to change her travel plans if need be. He did not respond to a question about whether Brewer would be willing to call a special session that would take place while she was still in Texas.

“She’s flexible to change (her) schedule if the Legislature needs her help,” Senseman said.

Legislative leadership has spent the past few weeks polling members to determine when they would be available for a special session and what budget bills they would be willing to approve. With Thanksgiving coming up next week and the Christmas holiday season on the horizon, Brewer has a relatively small window in which to call lawmakers back to the Capitol before the 2010 regular session begins in January.

The Arizona Capitol Times on Nov. 14 obtained copies of the three draft bills to be considered in special session that would cut about $300 million to K-12 education and the Department of Economic Security. The bills would also restore funding to several agencies, such as the Department of Revenue and Arizona Corporation Commission, which inadvertently lost funding that was included in a budget bill that Brewer vetoed in September.

If Brewer decides to stay in Arizona, it would be the second time in recent months that she called off her travel plans to attend to budget matters. In early September, Brewer canceled a trip to a border governors conference in Monterrey, Mexico, after the Legislature passed a budget package.