Legislative leaders have started asking individual members when they would be available to meet again in December, the Arizona Capitol Times has learned.

They are eyeing a special session that would begin Dec. 15 or 16. It would be the fifth special session of the year.

Sen. Jay Tibshraeny, a Republican from Chandler, said he got a call from the majority office asking for his availability. His reply, he said, is that he would be available anytime this month.

“That would include Christmas Day if they want to do some of the state’s work,” he said.

“It doesn’t matter that there is a holiday. It doesn’t matter if you have a birthday. It doesn’t matter if you got a trip planned. It doesn’t matter if you are planning to go out of town,” he added. “What matters is you are elected to do a job and the job is not finished, and we need to finish the job. It is as simple as that.”

After Gov. Jan Brewer’s first meeting with legislative leaders since the end of the fourth special session, she said policymakers are still trying to find out what level of budget cuts could be accomplished if they come back into session.

Brewer met with the Republican legislative leadership on Nov. 30.

When asked by reporters the next day what kinds of cuts she thought the state needed, Brewer said it’s going to come down to what kind of cuts lawmakers think they can make.

“At this point in time we really don’t have a figure,” she said. “They’re going to get back with their members to see just exactly what they think they can get accomplished, and then we’re going to meet next week and determine what we think we have the support and votes for.”

Brewer said she is hoping for more budget cuts and for a ballot referral to ask voters to pass a 1-cent sales tax increase. House Speaker Kirk Adams said the tax referral was discussed at the Nov. 30 meeting, as were other measures designed to garner the support of Republican lawmakers who do not support the tax increase. However, Adams said he could not discuss specifics.

Brewer said the state could not erase the entire $1.6 billion deficit, even if lawmakers cut everything except what is prohibited by the federal government.

Senate President Bob Burns has indicated other issues might come up as well. Those include addressing the fee-setting authority that was recently given to some state agencies, as well as legislation on home foreclosures.

The window of time hold the special session will narrow as Christmas approaches.

Sen. Leah Landrum Taylor, a Democrat from Phoenix, said she would have problems coming to the Capitol after Dec. 18.

“I do have family things that I already had planned for December,” she said. “After the 18th it is going to be very difficult for me, and I am not going to continue changing plans like I did all throughout the session. This is when we are supposed to be out of session anyway.”

Sen. Manny Alvarez, a Democrat from Elfrida, said he would be tied up after Dec. 14.

“It’s not like I’m an hour away,” said Alvarez, whose southeastern Arizona home is a four-hour drive from Phoenix.

Sen. Ron Gould, a Republican from Lake Havasu City, said he told leadership it doesn’t really matter whether he would be available for a special session this month. He said the Senate leadership is unwilling to make any changes to get his vote anyway. But if the Legislature convenes, he would be there, he said.

“They are going through the fallacious motion of acting as if they care what I think. They don’t,” he said.

“My big fear,” he added, “is that the governor is going to play a Grinch for Christmas and put coal in the taxpayers’ stockings by hiking taxes.”

– Reporters Jim Small and Jeremy Duda contributed in this article.