Arizona Gov. Jan Brewer painted a dark picture of Arizona’s state budge crisis but said the future will be brighter if the 1-cent sales tax gains voter approval.

“Our checkbook is overdrawn, our credit card is maxed out and we’ve mortgaged the house,” Brewer said in a one-on-one interview with a Courier reporter.

Brewer traveled to Cochise and Graham counties to meet with local officials and promote the 1-cent sales tax, which will be on the May 18 ballot.

The governor said budget reform and tax reform are needed to eventually bring Arizona out of the budget shortfall. The state’s budget is about $1 billion short of meeting expenses this year. That deficit is expected to increase next fiscal year, which begins July 1.

Arizona law requires that the state balance its budget each year. According to Brewer, public education, public safety and health and human services are the only places the state Legislature can tap for money to balance the state’s budget. The governor wants to hold the line at the 2006 levels

“If we can do that, we can move forward,“ she said.

Those areas will have to be cut, however, if the temporary 1-cent sales tax fails at the ballot box.

Cuts could include a rollback to half-day kindergarten and decreases to home health-care services.

The latter could result in housebound elderly no longer receiving nursing or other medical services at home. Ultimately, the family will have to pay. If that is not possible, then family members will have to “bury” their loved one.

She also said failure to pass the temporary sales tax would result in convicted felons receiving early release from the state prisons.

When it was pointed out that early release of felons would require revisions of Arizona’s penal codes, Brewer agreed, saying prison sentences are written in state law.

The governor then pointed out that Arizona’s prisons are preparing to release about 800 immigrant felons to the custody of federal authorities.

During her visit to the Gila Valley, Brewer stopped in Thatcher, where she attended a reception in her honor at the Graham County Historical Society Museum. She talked about the state’s financial crisis.

“We are worse off than Michigan, and we’re worse off than California,” Brewer said. “We’re the worst state (financially) in the country.

Brewer also took questions from the audience. Roxanne Cheney, Roper Lake State Park volunteer, asked the governor why she agrees to shutting down many parks in Arizona’s state park system when the parks bring in nearly $300 million a year in revenue.

Cheney said information from the State Parks Department shows the costs of maintaining those facilities are only about 10-percent of those revenues.

Brewer responded that some parks turn a profit while others do not. She said she supports partnerships with cities, counties and private companies to keep the parks open.

The governor then spoke about tough decisions she and the Legislature will be forced to make.

“Cuts that are going to affect rural Arizona are even harder,” Brewer said, adding that rural communities could lose their hospitals.