As we await an Arizona Supreme Court ruling on the state budget expected Tuesday, you really have to wonder if it should have ever come to this.
State Treasurer Dean Martin, a Republican, has been warning it would happen for months. Governor Jan Brewer, a Republican, has been pushing for unpopular solutions for months. Senate President Bob Burns, a Republican, and his party's leadership have been meeting behind closed doors for months.
Notice the similarities here?
While Republicans in the house and senate might've been able to argue it was a Democrat who got us into this mess, they can't very well blame any Democrat for their own party's failure to get us out of it. Everyone in play here is on the same team. The GOP controls the votes and the purse strings.
So why are we in court again?
Because, despite the promises of fiscal responsibility and wiping away government waste, the Republican party appears to be in shambles.
Yes, their hands are partially tied by voter referendum mandates and other various untouchables in the state budget. But if there was ever a time when the party needed to bring it, the time is now.
Instead, they're bickering over a budget everyone knows will be vetoed the minute it reaches the Governor's desk.
You'd think November 2008 would've been a wake-up call. Nationally, the GOP got trounced. But the news was still palatable for state lawmakers. Popular Democrat Janet Napolitano was on her way to Washington, giving way to a Republican replacement.
But Governor Jan Brewer has proven to be a lot more like her predecessor than many had predicted. She sought to keep all-day kindergarten, a Napolitano cornerstone, and even proposed a temporary sales tax increase to help balance the budget -- much to the chagrin of the budget hawks within her own party.
Given the ongoing bickering, it seems, it really doesn't matter what the Supreme Court decides. Sending the budget to the Governor means almost a sure bet for a veto. Allowing the budget to languish in the Senate for much longer pushes the budget past the fiscal deadline, and more bickering.
2010 elections aren't that far off. You have to wonder if voters will remember how the party-in-charge handled this year's fiscal fiasco and (possibly) next year. It could be the real wake-up call.
