State legislators plan to meet for a fifth special session this year on Dec. 14 to close a $1.5 billion budget deficit, but some lawmakers doubt there will be enough legislators at the Capitol to hold the session.
The session would come less than a month before the beginning of a regular session in January. Rep. Vic Williams, R-Tucson, said the session is an opportunity for the Legislature to streamline government agencies to save the state money.
“We need to re-address how we operate and organize government,” Williams said. “There are ways to reduce spending within agencies, but it’s something that’s not easily done.”
The Legislature trimmed $452 million of the deficit, which then totaled $2 billion, late last month when it made cuts to K-12 education and the Department of Economic Services.
This session, legislators will again consider Gov. Jan Brewer’s plan to put a temporary sales tax increase on the ballot for a special election.
If approved, that measure could bring in $1 billion.
Republican lawmakers have voted against the proposition in the past, but Williams is part of a growing number of Republicans who say they will vote in favor of it on the condition that it is tied to permanent spending cuts.
“The House of Representatives has [approved] that referral twice now, and I’m sure we can do it again as long as it is tied to permanent reductions in spending,” Williams said.
State Treasurer Dean Martin, however, said a voter-approved temporary sales tax could not be enacted in time for the end of the fiscal year in July. The state has been borrowing money in order to keep running, he said, money that has to be paid back by the time the next fiscal year begins.
“It’s too late for them to [pass] any tax increases,” Martin said. “The earliest they could get it on the ballot is in March and it would be May before it would go into effect.”
The Legislature has also had trouble getting enough members to vote in favor of measures to cut the deficit in the last few special sessions.
November’s session, which was only supposed to last one day, was stretched when two Republican senators voted against the measures and one was absent on vacation. Unanimous opposition by the Democrats kept the measure from passing.
Sen. Meg Burton-Cahill, D-Tempe, said word is spreading around the Capitol that there is only a 10 percent chance the session will happen at all.
Burton-Cahill herself will be out of town in New Orleans on Dec. 14 for a pre-planned engagement that she said that has nothing to do with the Legislature.
The difficulty in getting lawmakers to the Capitol for the session is a symptom of poor planning that has affected the previous special sessions as well, she said.
“Professionalism has really sunk down there,” she said. “I remember that one night in June when we sat around and nothing happened.”
Williams said he believes there will be enough legislators at the Capitol to hold the session. The main question, he said, is how lawmakers plan to solve the crisis.
“I don’t think we’re having trouble getting people to come back,” Williams said. “We’re having trouble figuring out the purview of the special session.”
Reach the reporter at derek.quizon@asu.edu.
