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Arizona Governor Jan Brewer signed four bills today to restore much of the roughly $600 million cut from education programs in the Legislature’s initial budget proposal, which she vetoed.
Monday, after an exhaustive special session, the Legislature passed a new budget to appease the irritated executive, and re-include her pricey passion projects.
“Republicans and Democrats united to fulfill my number-one priority — preventing education
from being decimated by massive cuts,” Brewer says.
This monumental unification of elephants and asses came after Brewer held a Legislative-detention session Monday, telling legislators that if they wanted to get paid or go home, they needed to figure out a way to include more money for education.
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By 7 p.m., the Legislature miraculously managed to do what it hadn’t been able to do in more than a month of negotiation: Agree on something.
“The Legislature still needs to work with me on a solution on the revenue side, because the budget is massively out of balance,” Brewer says. “Each day that goes by represents a dangerous delay.”
However, given the governor’s apparent mastery in motivating unruly legislators, as seen in their prompt adherence to education demand, closing the $3-billion budget gap should be a piece of cake, right?
Let’s hope nobody gets water-boarded.
