You gotta know when to hold 'em, and know when to fold 'em, and Governor Jan Brewer is clinging to the idea of a 1-cent sales tax increase like grim death.
"I still believe in the referral," she says today at a speech at the East Valley Institute of Technology in Mesa. "I trust the voters. And I can't see why, today, we can't get some agreement to send to the voters."
Well Jan, we can see why; it's because you and the Legislature haven't managed to agree on this proposal for the last three months! Why would today be any different?
Maybe the governor is hoping there is some truth in the whole 9-9-09 thing.
The increase is designed to help prevent further cuts in education, something the governor has been adamant about over the course of the budget process.
After the speech, Brewer told reporters that she was disappointed that her time as governor has not been as successful as she had hoped when she first took office.
When your party controls both houses of the Legislature, and you're a Republican governor, hopes must be pretty high. Unfortunately, this triumvirate of dunces couldn't pass a football, let alone a functioning budget.
