Budget OK won’t end legislative session

Lawmakers are expected to finalize a new $10.6 billion state spending plan this week, but that doesn’t mean an immediate end to the session.

Still on the table are several high-profile issues that could go unresolved this year — unless legislative leaders act quickly this week.

Those issues include measures related to illegal immigration, preserving state trust lands and air quality.

But the longer the bills sit, the less likely they will be passed, especially as pressure builds to wrap up the session.

“I don’t like waiting for the last minute to get something done,” said Sen. Jay Tibschraeny, R-Chandler, a former Senate majority leader. “I personally would have liked to have seen most of these bills taken care of by now.”

Tibschraeny, a former Chandler mayor, is hopeful lawmakers can pass a measure that outlaws tax incentives to developers who want to build retail facilities.

“I think for the first time in years we have a real chance of getting something passed on the floor,” he said.

Among the top issues left unresolved is illegal immigration. House lawmakers have passed a bill that penalizes businesses knowingly hiring undocumented workers.

Rep. Russell Pearce, R-Mesa, is threatening to take the issue to voters in 2008 if the Legislature again fails to approve the measure this year.

Pearce was in a similar situation last year, when a major piece of illegal immigration legislation was killed on the last night of the 2006 session.

Likewise, House lawmakers have passed a measure that shores up a 2006 voter-approved law denying bail to certain illegal immigrants charged with serious crimes.

The Senate still needs to act on both bills.

Lawmakers also will have to tackle air quality.

By the end of the year, they must come up with a plan to reduce the “brown cloud” that hangs over the Valley.

If they don’t, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency will impose its own plan, as well as sanctions that could include withholding federal highway funds.

Right now, there is a proposal adding new restrictions on leaf blowers and off-road vehicles to cut down on the amount of dust that’s kicked into the air.

Meanwhile, in another issue related to the environment, it appears a measure to preserve more state trust land will not get out of the Legislature.

That proposal would let certain groups buy up to 196,000 acres of property in and around state and national parks.

It comes after voters defeated a more comprehensive plan last year.

Most lawmakers said these and other bills are left until the end of session because there are no simple solutions to them.

Still, some elected officials were quick to point the blame at legislative leaders.

“I don’t think there’s any way you can’t fault out majority leadership (Republicans) for not getting these issues taken care of,” said Rep. David Schapira, D-Tempe.

He still has some unfinished business of his own. The Tempe lawmaker successfully added an amendment onto a bill requiring people convicted of their first drunken driving offense to use an breath-testing ignition interlock device to start their vehicles for one year.

The Legislature passed the bill last month, but in a rare move, is poised to repeal that provision. “They are not going to successfully weaken this DUI bill,” Schapira vowed last week.

But with the budget out of the way, lawmakers are expected to move quickly this week and wrap up the session.

Sen. Majority Leader Thayer Verschoor, R-Gilbert, said he thinks the Legislature can finish by Friday.

Last week, lawmakers agreed to a tentative $10.6 billion budget deal that includes $46 million for teacher salaries, $68 million for state employees and $2.5 million for police.

However, the compromise does not include the proposed $63 million tax cut offered by House Republicans. Instead, lawmakers agreed to a modest $11 million in targeted tax cuts.