PHOENIX — Arizona now faces an $800 million budget deficit this year — $200 million more than anticipated — as the state’s economy essentially has gone flat.

 Both Gov. Janet Napolitano and Senate President Tim Bee said Friday that tax collections continue to run far behind the figures anticipated when lawmakers put together the $10.6 billion spending plan earlier this year.

 That is not new. What is new is the other side of the equation:

 The downturn has resulted in more people applying for state services. And that means expenses for things like the Arizona Health Care Cost Containment System, the state’s Medicaid program, will be higher than budgeted.

 Despite the continued flow of red ink, Bee said the Republican majority in the Legislature remains unwilling to consider even a temporary suspension of the $600 million in tax cuts approved in 2006. Several Democrats have suggested that be among the options considered.

 But that idea is not getting any traction even with Napolitano. Aides said the Democrat governor intends to present lawmakers with a plan to bring this year’s budget into balance without raising revenues.

 How she will do that, however, remains unclear.

 Napolitano’s plan to deal with a $600 million deficit involved borrowing $300 million for school construction rather than paying cash. That pretty much exhausts that possibility.

 She also proposed taking $200 million from the state’s “rainy day fund.’’ The option is there to withdraw more: There is close t $700 million in the account.

 The balance would be made up with a combination of actual spending cuts deferring some purchases and expenses into the next budget year.

 Even as lawmakers struggle with the current budget, some Republicans are moving to make permanent what was enacted in 200 as a temporary tax cut.

 The budget deal that year suspended for three years the property tax earmarked for education. The state’s flush financia condition at that time convinced lawmakers and the governor that

 Arizona could do without the more than $200 million in revenues.

 But the deal says that tax automatically comes back after 2009.

 Sen. Jim Waring, R-Phoenix, has introduced legislation to make that tax cut permanent.

 Napolitano called the move “premature,’’ saying it makes no sense to forego future revenues now when no one knows what the state’s financial condition will be in 2010. But Bee backs the move.

 The Senate president said many Arizonans are in an uproar over increases in their property tax bills which are still collected to fund counties, school districts, community colleges and mos cities. He said much of that is due to the rising values of most homes, the figure used to compute taxes.

 Bee warned that unless lawmakers enact permanent property tax relief, voters will take matters into their own hands and approv one of two proposed ballot measures to cap all property taxes.

 Napolitano said action now is unnecessary. She said if lawmakers want to make the tax cut permanent, they still have another opportunity to do that in 2009.

 Gubernatorial press aide Shilo Mitchell said one option being considered to balance the budget includes “rollovers,’’ a gimmick to technically allow the state to meet its constitutional mandate for a balanced budget.

 One technique used in prior years involves the approximately $190 million the state is provide in aid each month to public schools.

 The state could “save’’ that much by not making the June 2008 payment — the last month of the state’s fiscal year — until July.

 That tactic has fallen out of favor in recent years because it simply moves the financial problem rather than solves it — especially with no guarantee that Arizona’s economy will get any better next year.