Gov. Janet Napolitano is hosting meetings today with state legislative leaders to address the state’s impending $1.2 billion budget shortfall for the current fiscal year.<\/p>\n
This comes at the invitation from the president of the Senate and speaker of the House following the governor’s veto of the latest budget proposal from the Legislature.<\/p>\n
According to the\u00a0Capitol Times<\/em>, Napolitano on Monday vetoed a spending freeze approved last week by the Legislature that would have prevented state agencies from spending about $580 million already assigned to them, including $25 million from the three universities.<\/p>\n Republican leaders said the move did not amount to a budget cut, but was intended to guarantee agencies did not spend all of the money before a solution could be reached on the deficit, the\u00a0Times\u00a0<\/em>reported. Napolitano said in her veto letter the bill was rejected because it was not a comprehensive plan developed and approved with bipartisan support.<\/p>\n A second piece of legislation, which would freeze state hiring, including universities, has passed both houses and is awaiting transmittal to the governor.<\/p>\n Meanwhile, NAU President\u00a0John Haeger<\/strong>\u00a0has issued personnel evaluation and hiring guidelines that supplement his\u00a0budget guidelines<\/a>\u00a0announced last month.<\/p>\n The president has announced that:<\/p>\n\n