With only one Democrat in opposition, the House Appropriations Committee voted Wednesday to freeze virtually all state and university hiring and promotions indefinitely in an effort to stem the flow of red ink.

The move came after Rep. Bob Robson, R-Chandler, produced figures from the Department of Administration showing state agencies have continued filling vacancies months after Gov. Janet Napolitano asked department chiefs to temporarily stop hiring where possible. But the number of state workers this month is slightly higher than it was when Napolitano sent that letter in September.

No similar numbers on hiring at the state's three universities were immediately available.

Only House Minority Leader Phil Lopes, D-Tucson, voted against the GOP-crafted plan, saying he questioned whether lawmakers can mandate a hiring freeze.

But others, like Rep. Linda Lopez, D-Tucson, suggested HB2043 is probably long overdue.

"The first thing you do when you've got a budget problem is you look at the ways to stop the bleeding with the least amount of pain," she said. "And a hiring freeze is the first way you do that."

ASU officials had not seen the legislation Wednesday. But spokeswoman Terri Shafer said Arizona State University has continued to fill open jobs despite the state deficit. At any given time, the university is working to fill roughly 100 open positions outside of faculty jobs. The vote to cut spending is designed to deal with a deficit that now appears to exceed $1 billion in this year's $10.6 billion budget. The gap could hit $2 billion next fiscal year if spending continues at current levels.

But the panel also took steps Wednesday to prevent future deficits, agreeing to ask voters to approve a new - and lower - limit on state spending. A 1980 constitutional amendment caps expenditures at 7.41 percent of total personal income, the combined figure of what everyone in Arizona earns. HCR2038 would reduce that to 6.4 percent.

Rep. Russell Pearce, R-Mesa, said if the limit were already in place, lawmakers would have been forced to adopt a spending plan that was $117 million less than what was actually approved. And that, he said, would have made the current deficit that much smaller.

The deficit is due to tax collections running far below the projections prepared when lawmakers adopted the current $10.6 billion budget nearly a year ago.

But Pearce, chairman of the Appropriations Committee, said the real problem is that state spending has increased hundreds of millions of dollars each year because lawmakers thought the money would be there.

"Whatever money we get, we'll spend," he said.

Pearce called the 6.4 percent cap a "reasonable restriction" on the size of government, saying it still provides for necessary year-to-year growth in spending due to inflation and more residents moving here.

But Lopez said it's a mistake to put that spending restriction into the state constitution. "It's up to the Legislature to make these decisions," she said. Lopez said lawmakers need flexibility to deal with special situations.

Napolitano's September letter to agency chiefs to defer unnecessary hiring came when the state's revenues were just $250 million short. Gubernatorial press aide Shilo Mitchell acknowledged that Napolitano has issued no directives despite the deepening deficit, saying only that the governor is "looking at all the options."