Click the play button on the video window to the right to see the storyPHOENIX -- Governor Jan Brewer has signed three bills into law that restore public school funding and Arizona's eligibility for federal stimulus funding.
On Wednesday, Brewer also signed a fourth bill that limits the daily expense pay for legislators during their ongoing special session that Brewer called for further work on the state budget.
The governor last week vetoed parts of the budget approved by the Legislature, forcing the special session.
The vetoes eliminated funding for K-12 public schools and also threw the state out of compliance for billions of dollars of stimulus money.
Brewer said she wanted to increase spending for education and to get lawmakers back to the negotiating table to consider a proposed sales tax increase.
The spending bill she signed Wednesday increased school funding by about $500 million, appropriating a total of nearly $3.3 billion of school funding.
"If this package...didn't go through, there would literally be no funding for schools to even open, so there wouldn't be students," said Rep. David Schapira (D). "There would be kids that aren't going to school."
MORE: Governor vetoes part of state budget, calls legislature back The four bills approved this week didn't touch the sales-tax issue but lawmakers acknowledged they still face what could be weeks of further negotiations to settle remaining budget differences among themselves and with Brewer.
"This is a stopgap measure here," said Senate Appropriations Chairman Russell Pearce, R-Mesa.
Indeed, the budget remains out of balance by $2.1 billion, said Richard Stavneak, the Legislature's budget director.
Lawmakers have not addressed other vetoes that moved the state away from a balanced budget.
Those included vetoed bills or provisions that eliminated $775 million of spending cuts throughout parts of state government and erased $1.3 billion of other budget-balancing steps, including $735 million of borrowing through refinancing prisons and other state facilities.
The four bills signed into law Wednesday are House Bills 2001, 2002, 2003 and 2004.
