Robbie Sherwood and Chip Scutari
The Arizona Republic
Jun. 18, 2003 12:00 AM
Republican lawmakers expressed outrage Tuesday after Democratic Gov. Janet
Napolitano vetoed 35 items in their 2004 budget, restoring money for the arts,
parks, vaccines, dental care, mental health care and other programs.
Napolitano signed the $6.4 billion budget, but not before adding $65 million
the Legislature had eliminated during five months of budget balancing. Napolitano's
biggest addition is $15 million to increase the number of Child Protective Services
caseworkers and possibly increase their salaries.
Restoring money Other effects of the governor's action on the budget: Restores $4 million to help cushion the blow for school districts that lose large numbers of students at once. About 30 percent of the money goes to Colorado City, where many students were pulled for religious reasons. Leaves $1.7 million in the Air Quality Fund in-lieu account to help improve air quality by repairing older cars to improve their emissions. Restores $3 million for the Parents' Commission to be used in drug education and treatment programs. Maintains the State Land Department's ability to use the fee from environmental license plates for environmental education programs. Arizona's line-item veto history Republican legislative leaders are looking into a possible legal challenge of some of Gov. Janet Napolitano's 35 line-item vetoes, saying she is appropriating money through the use of her vetoes. In 1992, the state Senate, which was then controlled by Democrats, sued Gov. Fife Symington, charging that his line-item vetoes and orders attempting to prevent agency heads from spending money were unconstitutional. It was the first case of its kind. The budget bill ordered the transfer of roughly $12 million from various special state funds into the General Fund to help balance the budget. The Senate hired a young attorney to take on Symington in court. Her name: Janet Napolitano. There were essentially three questions involved in the 1992 case, Rios vs. Symington: Could a governor line-item veto transfers of money from one state account to another? Could the governor line-item veto legislated reductions of previous appropriations? |
Could the governor order state agencies not to spend certain allocated funds
in order to keep the budget in balance?
According to most legal experts, Symington won on the first two grounds and
Senate Democrats won on the last point. The ruling upheld Symington's ability
to make line-item vetoes in the budget and expanded his power slightly by allowing
line-item vetoes in fund-transfer bills that previously had been viewed as separate
from appropriations.To ensure that the budget remained balanced, the governor
postponed $75 million in payments in a class-action lawsuit involving back taxes.
The budget eliminates this year's deficit, but lawmakers will begin with a shortfall
of about $380 million next year.
"We will have a budget better than any other state I can think of,"
the governor said. "We have protected K-12 education. We have protected
vital services. We will not have a tax increase this year, and we have decreased
our deficit. We can look at next year without the specter of a large tax increase
hanging over our head."
Legislative leaders said she exceeded her authority by restoring money for so
many programs and pushing back the allocation for the tax case until 2005, when
payments on the settlement begin coming due.
"I don't know how she can take $75 million out of one pot and put it anywhere
you want," said House Speaker Jake Flake, R-Snowflake, who is researching
a possible legal challenge. "We need to challenge this. I told the governor,
'I knew you were powerful, but I didn't think you were that powerful.' If she
can do that, why do we need a Legislature?"Thirst for spendingHe and other
House and Senate Republican leaders aimed their outrage at the scope and cost
of Napolitano's line-item vetoes, saying her thirst for spending has put the
state on a collision course with a tax increase.
Napolitano said it didn't make sense to begin making payments on the tax case
earlier than necessary, although the postponement means the state will have
to pay substantially more in 2005 and 2006. She also expressed confidence that
her vetoes would survive any court challenge.
"I'm sued all the time," Napolitano said. "I'm probably the most
frequently named litigant in Arizona. The question is: Can you be sued successfully?
In my view and in the view of my lawyers . . . we are on solid legal ground."
With her vetoes, Napolitano:? Restored an $8 million hit to the voter-approved
Heritage Fund, which pays for projects to maintain parks and sustain Arizona's
natural beauty. Lawmakers would have used the money on other programs, including
the arts.? Saved the $7 million Arts Endowment Fund for grants to artists and
education programs. Lawmakers would have swept the money into the General Fund
to balance the budget.? Stopped lawmakers from supplanting $15 million from
the Department of Economic Security, which will allow the agency to deal with
a crisis-level staffing shortage in Child Protective Services. Napolitano said
she wants to prevent tragedies like the recent child-abuse case in Phoenix in
which parents are accused of keeping their young son locked in a closet and
withholding food. CPS visited the family several times but took no significant
action.? Killed a 6-year-old abstinence education program for teens in the Department
of Health Services. Napolitano cited a position from the executive director
of the Goldwater Institute, Darcy Olsen, who was quoted as saying such programs
don't work.
Sen. Mark Anderson, who helped abstinence education get its start, said teens
have benefited from the program.
"It's obviously a philosophical issue," said Anderson, R-Mesa. "I
guess if you don't believe young people should be encouraged to be abstinent."'Floating
on air'Shelley Cohn, executive director of the Arizona Commission on the Arts,
said she was "floating on air" Tuesday after hearing that Napolitano
had saved the arts endowment. It was created in 1996 as a public-private partnership
with the state kicking in money each year and private groups and individuals
giving money toward the fund.
The Arts Commission still faces some cuts. Its operating budget was reduced
$270,000, which will result in less money to give out as grants next year, Cohn
said.
Restoring money for the Heritage Fund was a priority for environmentalists.
Sandy Bahr, conservation outreach director for the Grand Canyon Chapter of the
Sierra Club, said the governor had assured environmentalists that a $10.2 million
cut in the fund in the 2003 budget would be the last.
After being briefed on Napolitano's vetoes, a disappointed Senate President
Ken Bennett, R-Prescott, said he and other GOP leaders felt betrayed.
They said she reneged on a pledge earlier this year to set aside the $75 million
this year for the class-action tax case settlement.
"It creates a $150 million hole in the budget that we are going to start
working on in just a few months," Bennett said.
Sen. Jack Harper suggested that Republicans seek revenge for the vetoes by spiking
some of Napolitano's remaining nominations to run state agencies. Those nominations
include Steve Owens as director of the Department of Environmental Quality and
former Sen. Chris Cummiskey as head of the Government Information Technology
Agency.
"It's time to start being more partisan," said Harper, R-Glendale.
"I'd like to see us hold up a few of her nominations."
Bennett later said he would not hold up Napolitano's appointments for political
reasons.'Need to sit down'He and other Republican leaders said they thought
they had tacitly negotiated a deal of the governor's liking when they sat down
with Senate Democrats to work out a budget compromise.
But Sen. Jay Tibshraeny said lawmakers should not have shut Napolitano out of
the negotiations.
"If you want to have a deal with the governor, you need to sit down and negotiate with her," said Tibshraeny, R-Chandler. "It doesn't do us any good to whine about it now."
Reporters Anne Ryman and Mary Jo Pitzl contributed to this article.
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