As we reported this morning, the special session of the Legislature was expected to be over today, and legislators were expected to agree on a number of cuts to help bridge the state's $2 billion budget gap.
That didn't happen.
In what is becoming almost tradition, the Republicans in the Senate came up one vote short of passing a bill that would trim about $400 million off the budget shortfall.
That one vote, the Arizona Republic reports, belongs to Gilbert Republican Thayer Verschoor, who evidently didn't show up this afternoon.
It was believed that Verschoor approved the cuts and his vote would have sent the bill to the House, where it is expected to pass and be the first real step in chipping away at the $2 billion gap.
Sounds like a standard case of same shit, different day.
This is the second special session of this Legislature since July, and as of yet, it has managed to get just about nothing accomplished.
We called Senator Verschoor's office -- he wasn't in (of course not -- it's only the middle of the afternoon on a Thursday), but his secretary confirmed that he did not vote this afternoon; she wasn't exactly sure why.
In retrospect, after four months of legislative infighting and political bickering, it was probably stupid of us to think anything would be resolved today.
The special session will resume Monday. This time we're gonna take the safe bet and just assume nothing gets accomplished.
