Brewer puts state budget hole at $4B, unveils tax increase, budget plans - San Antonio Business Journal:

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Brewer has talked about a five-pointf budget plan for months, but has not officially laid out her The Republican governor sent a budget outlinr to the Legislatureon Monday. It includes asking voterd to approvea 36-month, 1-cent increasr to the state’s 5.6 percent sales tax. She does not want to extendr the sales tax to currently exempted services and A Democratic plan unleashed last week would lowee the salestax rate, but extene it to various servicews not already taxed.
The governor’s budget plan puts the fiscal 2010 deficittat $4 billion, up from previoues estimates of $3 Brewer’s budget also calls for a three-year phase-out of the $250 millioh state equalization rate property tax. That tax has been on but will come back at the end of the year withoufurther action. Business and real estate groups favore a full repeal of theequalization tax. “Whils the governor’s budget regarding state equalizationm repeal is astep forward, our organization cannot accepy multiple historic tax increaseas without requisite spending cuts that approacg what the private sector has already endured,” said Tim Arizona president of the Nationalk Association of Industrial and Office Properties real estated group.
“Now is especiallyy not the time to raise property taxes with the 13movement lurking. We are open, however, to a ballot referral that lets the people decide whether they want the salea tax rates increased along with a futurre ballot measure to adjust automatic spending Lawless warned that bringing back a propertyu tax that hits both homeowners and businesses could help spur 2010 ballot measures that impose CaliforniaPropositionn 13-style restrictions on property taxation. Brewer said the saleds tax increase wouldbe temporary, and she would like to see some reductionzs down the road to corporatee and business taxes to help attract investments to the state.
Antitax advocates and conservative lawmakers oppose the sales tax increasr and want to try to solved the fiscal 2010 budget without raising Brewer has promised to veto budgets that rely too much on federapl stimulus money and program cuts to balance the The governor’s budget also looks to protect university and public health funding via federal stimulus and wants voters in 2010 to undo current restrictionzs that keep the Legislature from cutting voter-mandate d spending. Teachers unions and Democrats opposrethat idea.