Arizona Capitol Times Your Inside Source for Arizona Government, Politics and Business

Outgoing Arizona Gov. Jan Brewer said Monday she is preparing a budget proposal that protects her top priorities but that she acknowledges can be ignored by governor-elect Doug Ducey.

State budget analysts say that taxing two smokeable products, one legal and the other illegal, could bring the state as much as $60 million per year – revenue that the state desperately needs in order to shrink the budget deficit and avoid new cuts to government programs.

Legislative budget analysts report that October marked the seventh straight month in which tax collections fell below the forecast levels used when the current state budget was approved by legislators and Gov. Jan Brewer last spring.

The successful gubernatorial candidate who promised to balance the budget without tax hikes or borrowing won't be presenting a truly balanced spending plan to lawmakers in January.

Facing a billion-dollar deficit on the day he takes office, Arizona Governor-elect Doug Ducey formed a budget study committee to help him figure out the problem prior to his inauguration, and several key members of his predecessor’s administration are lending a hand.

Lawmakers get a fresh start in budget negotiations come January, when the next legislative session kicks off with new blood in two of three key leadership posts at the Capitol.

Three factors have consistently been cited as big contributors to the estimated $1 billion deficit the state will face in fiscal year 2016 and some lawmakers are urging action on the one they actually control — tax cuts from a three year-old economic stimulus bill.

It’s looking less like a great comeback and more like an arduous climb out of Dante’s purgatory. While Gov. Jan Brewer often talks about Arizona’s “success story” and how the state is now among the best places in the nation to do business, the truth is that Arizona is once more in deep fiscal trouble.

Like Gov. Jan Brewer in 2009, the winner of the gubernatorial race between Republican Doug Ducey and Democrat Fred DuVal will find himself in the unenviable position of trying to erase a massive budget deficit. Legislative fiscal analysts say the state is expected to face a $520 million deficit for the current fiscal year and will be in a $1 billion hole in fiscal year 2016, which begins next July 1.

State budget analysts say Arizona's current fiscal year is getting off to a weak start.