Posted on June 5, 2006

Arizona Governor not Shy with Veto

AP, June 5, 2006

PHOENIX — Gov. Janet Napolitano’s vetoes are about to put her in the Arizona history books again.

A year after setting a single-session record for Arizona governors with 58 vetoes — Gov. Jane Hull, a Republican, set the old record of 28 in 2001 — the first-term Democrat is poised to capture the whole-term record in less than four years.

So far this year, Miss Napolitano has rejected 31 bills passed by the Republican-majority Legislature, including measures that would have created a new tax break on companies’ donations for private school scholarships and would have tightened an existing law requiring parental consent for minors to have abortions.

Her record veto — No. 115 — could come today, when she is expected to act on a wide-ranging border-security bill. It includes provisions similar to a bill she previously vetoed that would have made illegal aliens’ presence in Arizona a crime under the state’s trespassing law.

Miss Napolitano refused to say whether she will veto the measure, but she warned legislative leaders she would if the bill included criminalization provisions.

The Legislature has not been able to override one of her vetoes.

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