If there had been one person who could have persuaded enough Senate Republicans to pass the so-called jobs bill, it was probably Senate President Bob Burns.

But Burns consistently raised concerns that H2250’s tax cuts would reduce the general fund by hundreds of millions of dollars at a time when the state is experiencing record-breaking deficits.

Burns’ reservations explain why he didn’t work to either persuade his members to support H2250 or to find some compromise as much as he pushed to pass the ballot proposal to temporarily increase the sales tax by a penny.

“It wasn’t my bill,” Burns told the Arizona Capitol Times when asked about it.

House Speaker Kirk Adams agreed that had Burns supported his bill or a version of it, then that would have changed the equation in the Senate.

“I think anytime — whether it’s the speaker or the president — is in support of a bill, it goes a long away to help that bill gain the necessary 31 and 16 (votes),” Adams said.

On April 27, Adams and Burns met to discuss the measure. According to Senate insiders who were briefed about the meeting, Adams didn’t want anymore changes to his bill.

“What was relayed to me was that Kirk said no amendments. He wanted it like it was,” said Senate Majority Whip Steve Pierce.

Failing to reach a deal, Adams and Burns agreed to wrap up the session.

Burns put what happened this way in a letter to Adams: “In that meeting you told me you were withdrawing HB2250 from further consideration because you did not believe an acceptable compromise could be reached. At that point we agreed to move toward adjourning this session sine die by Thursday.”

But Adams said there was never any agreement for him to just drop his bill. He said he was also willing to change it, such as tweak the makeup, size and timing of the tax cuts. But he wasn’t willing to give up the tax cuts entirely because that to his mind would have undermined the premise of his measure.

“When he (Burns) made it clear that the bill was not going to get a vote, we decided to work towards sine die. At no juncture did I decide to abandon the bill or no longer work on the bill,” Adams said.

Burns told the Arizona Capitol Times that there simply wasn’t enough support for the measure.

Sen. Ron Gould, a Lake Havasu City Republican who had clashed with Burns over the sales tax referral, said he didn’t see any efforts by leadership to round up votes for H2250.

But Pierce said the leadership team gave the bill its best shot.

“We had lots of members saying we’ve got a $2-billion deficit. How are we going to cut taxes for new businesses that come into the state when we are cutting education and everything else?” he said.