Forum participants call for bipartisanship

PHOENIX (AP) — Arizona legislators are focused on the state's big budget troubles, but participants at a forum on improving state government said attitudes also need to be adjusted.

Many participants of the forum — held Tuesday before the Legislature started a special session on budget-related topics — said adversarial partisanship among lawmakers has to be replaced by bipartisan statesmanship.

"You don't build bridges when people don't pay attention to one another," said Southwest Gas Corp. lobbyist Richard Foreman.

Other conclusions shared by many participants included calls for dealing with the current budget trouble through targeted spending cuts and a short-term tax increase. Long-term proposals included goal-setting and identification of needs vs. wants.

"And then staying on track," committed to agreed-upon cuts and revenue enhancements, said Craig Sullivan of the County Supervisors Association of Arizona. "It's important to stay the course over multiple years."

Some participants said party politics have to be set aside. But Republican Rep. John Kavanagh of Fountain Hills said lawmakers' clashes over budget approaches reflects ideological divides, not merely party labels.

Relatively few legislators are "so-called moderates" with views that fall between those of conservative Republicans and liberal Democrats, Kavanagh said. "We have fundamental differences on how we think government should be run."

Approximately 20 of Arizona's 90 sitting legislators and Gov. Jan Brewer's chief of staff participated in the "Governing Arizona" forum sponsored by the Thomas R. Brown Foundation and The Communications Institute.

Arizona faces a $2 billion shortfall in its current budget, and a $3 billion gap is projected for the budget for the fiscal that starts July 1.

Besides spending cuts and Brewer's proposed temporary sales-tax increase, options discussed during Tuesday's forum included borrowing against future Arizona Lottery revenue, shifting some school construction costs to local districts and taking money from local governments.