PHOENIX — When Gov. Janet Napolitano and state lawmakers went looking for ways to balance the budget they slashed funding for some large and small programs and took money out of a host of special dedicated accounts.
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The state Senate has $1.5 million in its bank account against its $9.1 million budget and its $426,600 cut.
And the House has amassed nearly $9.1 million, dwarfing the $618,100 cut it took in its $13.8 million budget.
In an effort to make up a $2 billion gap between revenues and expenses, the budget cuts spending for most state agencies by 5 percent. That same figure was applied to the governor and the two legislative bodies.
But there’s a major difference for them.
Each year the governor and lawmakers set up their appropriations to be “non-lapsing.’’ That means anything they save they can keep.
In fact, the money in the House funds goes all the way back to 2001.
By contrast, virtually every other state agency’s budget spells out that what they don’t need or haven’t spent at the end of the year goes back to the state treasury.
So while the deal “swept’’ nearly $340 million out of other funds to balance the budget, these three funds were not raided.
Nor did any of the three give up more than the 5 percent cuts despite their bank accounts even as the state was slashing programs the funds would have provided enough money to save, like $284,700 to suspend a program that educates doctors about Valley Fever, cut $330,000 for a program designed to get elementary school students in rural counties to eat more fruits an vegetables, and $501,500 to for the Health Department t eliminate a program that provides grants to nonprofit agencies t help assist women seeking alternatives to abortion.
The three top officials in each slot each said they wer justified in having non-lapsing funds. House Speaker Jim Weiers said his chamber’s large account is a result of “being frugal,’’ including cutting all out-of-town travel for lawmakers.
But only Weiers — who was the odd-man out in the budget deal said he was willing to take larger cuts in his budget to help save other programs or reduce the need of the state to borro more than $900 million.
Gubernatorial press aide Jeanine L’Ecuyer said Napolitano need to have that money for unexpected problems. For example, she said, the governor used her account to hire a consultant to “help manager through’’ the problems Arizona faced when a gasolin pipeline broke near Tucson and slashed the amount of gasoline flowing into the Phoenix area.
That was in 2003.
L’Ecuyer said taking that $1.1 million would have amounted to about 14 percent of Napolitano’s budget. She said that would be an “unusually large cut in comparison to other agencies.’’
But draining the account — taking a 14 percent “cut’’ instead o the 5 percent reduction — still would have left Napolitano wit no fewer dollars this year than she had last year.
By contrast, the 5 percent cut for the state’s three universities is resulted in them having $50 million less to spend.Senate
President Tim Bee would not agree to an interview. Instead his press aide, Laura Devany, provided a written printed response to an inquiry saying the Senate decreased its budget by 5 percent, “just as we did with most other state agencies.’’
The statement also says that the Senate, “unlike other agencies and boards, ... does not have separate funds to sweep.’’
Devany refused to answer questions about why the $1.5 million in the Senate account could not be put into the general account and used to balance the budget or save other programs.
The $340 million in accounts ``swept’’ from other agencies to balance the budget range from $10.3 million in job training funds and $8.2 million from the housing trust fund to $3 million in a recycling fund, $25,000 from a state chemist pesticide fund and $4,600 from a poison control fund.
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