Thursday, September 3, 2009

Brewer signs one bill, the real stuff comes tomorrow

Governor Brewer signed the bill authorizing funding for DPS today and signaled her intention to address the rest of the budget bills tomorrow. She made a surprise appearance today at the League of Cities conference in Tucson and reiterrated her call for the voters to decide on the sales tax issue.

Reports have it that she's still working with Senate Dems to come up with a compromise and it sounds like the equalization property tax is the central piece. The biggest question that remains is whether Brewer will sign the budget she previously vetoed, veto it again, or line item veto some parts including the tax repeal.

3 comments:

Thane Eichenauer said...

Come now, sign the DPS funding bill but not ASU/NAU/UofA? Where are her priorities? Doesn't she know that civilization itself depends upon the continued funding of Michael Crow's $475,000 per year salary?

Michelle S. said...

It seems a little late for Gov. Brewer to invite the Democratic legislators to the bargaining table now but it is a hopeful sign of progress. The deadline to approve or veto the other budget bills is two days away and from what I have read, the Dems are no more eager to include the 1% sales tax hike in the FY10 budget than the Republicans are. It seems an easy fix to allow the equalization property tax to be reinstated. The tax was originally slated to help counties fund public schools based on need. Reinstating the tax would lessen the necessity for deep education funding cuts. Our students deserve a quality education and cutting funding for education is the wrong way to go.

Thane Eichenauer said...

Is the real stuff here yet?