Legislature sends spending freeze to Governor's desk

In a busy session, the state House and Senate nearly simultaneously passed bills that would immediately freeze over $500 million dollars of state agency and special fund spending.

House Majority Leader Tom Boone (R-Peoria) said that today's legislation is a "management tool" that he and the Republican leadership hope will aid in "bipartisan budget negotiations."

"My hope is that this will spur negotiations" between Republicans and Democrats in the legislature and Democratic Governor Janet Napolitano's office, said Boone. The intent is to "preserve" the funds so they aren't spent by the time an agreement is reached, according to the majority leader, who emphasized emphatically that the bill passed today is "not a budget."

"Budget negotiations are moving along, it's just that they're moving very, very slow," said Boone.

However, Barrett Marson, spokesman for House Republicans, explained that the funds addressed in the legislation, including school construction surpluses that would remain at the end of 2008, would be the first on the chopping block if state agency spending cuts are part of the final budget.

Yet "this doesn't include the rainy-day fund or bonding," said Marson. Dipping into the state's reserves or borrowing to pay for projects may be used to offset the remaining balance of the $1.2 billion shortfall that is projected, though Marson claims that, for Republicans, bonding is still "off the table."

Gov. Napolitano is not expected to sign the bill that will come to her desk this evening, though Rep. Boone pointed out that she had before reversed herself on a hiring freeze that was implemented last month.