Arizona: Ron Gould

Posted by AzBlueMeanie:

The Senate Appropriations Committee passed the "Sham-Wow!" budget deal on a 6-3 vote Monday, setting up a crucial vote on Tuesday.

The Arizona Guardian headline today says "Do or die time for Senate budget today and its not looking good" (subscription required). "The Senate's chances for smooth passage of a budget including a sales tax referral were dimming late Monday as Sen. Carolyn Allen continued to be a no vote."

Secretary of State Ken Bennett told The Arizona Republic over the weekend that he had to have the matters to be referred to the ballot by 8:00 a.m. on Tuesday for he and county elections officials across the state to have enough time to prepare for a Nov.

A tenuous budget deal between Gov. Jan Brewer and GOP legislative leaders took a step backward this morning, with the Senate Appropriations Committee rejecting a key portion of the plan.
The feed bill, Senate Bill 1470, failed in the committee on a 4-4 vote (a majority vote is necessary for passage). Republican Sens. Ron Gould, Jack Harper and Steve Pierce joined with Democratic Sen. Paula Aboud to oppose the measure, the first in a series of bills that make up the budget package for fiscal 2010.
Following the vote, Sen. Russell Pearce, R-Mesa, immediately recessed the committee. Moments later, the committee reconvened to ...

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Arizona held hostage, Day 22:
Howdy,  Friends O'Farley...

One more week until we must deliver a balanced budget or face government shutdown.

Democrats have the one reasonable plan on the table, but I'm not going to ask you to contact the governor's office to urge Governor Brewer to negotiate with us because she is still not listening to you. Despite your outpouring of support, our Democratic budget is still not being considered by the Republican leadership in the Legislature or the Governor's Office.

The Governor is still pushing ahead on her special action in the state Supreme Court to force the Republican leadership to send their budget bills to her so she can veto them.

Posted by AzBlueMeanie:

The City of Tucson Council meeting Tuesday night was a raucus event with protestors out in force to object to the 2% "renters sales tax" proposed by newly elevated City Manager Mike Letcher. Proposal for 2% tax on renters is blasted Some of the protesters wearing red were with Trent Humphries (a former Republican legislative candidate) and his Tucson Tea Party, which is opposed to all taxes and fee increases. Go away, already. Other individuals who possess a social consience wore red for the coalition of housing associations arguing that the tax would affect the poorest Tucsonans at a time they can least afford to pay.