Last week, a few friends went to lunch. The conversation turned to the budget and our shared concerns over some key issues that had not been addressed. Moreover, we all discovered that we were about to head into an Appropriations meeting having not had an opportunity to read the proposed amendments that we were expected to vote on. We decided to call the chairman and let him know our concerns and ask that we have time before the scheduled meeting to talk about these new amendments and the small handful of concerns. This seemed more polite than showing up and voting down amendments without giving our chairman the "heads up."
Unfortunately, this small act of preservation and respectful hesitancy was interpreted by onlookers as some sort of Conservative split from the caucus. People imagined all sorts of silly things and many folks were really offended because of their incorrect interpretation of our actions. For that I am truly saddened. We respect our Republican leadership team greatly, and we know that they are up against a tough fight with this super-liberal spending governor. To have them think we questioned them is painfully wrong.
I believe we are very close to an acceptable budget that all of us can live with and it is do in large part to the tireless efforts by our two Appropriations Chairmen and our whole leadership team in the House. All of Arizona is lucky to have such a dedicated group of people down at the House of Representatives fighting for a responsible budget that will meet the needs of Arizonans without raising taxes or spending into debt.
That's how it seems to me, but that is after all just my interpretation.
