PHOENIX (AP) – Arizona Gov. Jan Brewer fought President Barack Obama on immigration and border security for most of her tenure, earning national prominence by enacting tough laws that were mainly struck down by the courts and famously wagging her finger in the president’s face during a meeting on an airport tarmac.
But the Republican governor leaves a more nuanced legacy after nearly six years in office, one that saw her inherit a massive deficit at the height of the Great Recession, patch it up and push for economic recovery only to see Arizona sink back into a deficit as she prepares to step down Jan. 5.
Brewer bucked her party’s right wing by pushing for a temporary sales-tax increase to shore up the state’s finances and embracing a key part of Obama’s health care overhaul law, Medicaid expansion. Both angered conservatives.
Still the 70-year-old governor is unapologetic, saying she’s immensely proud of her accomplishments, even if Arizona’s fiscal ship isn’t still righted. Coming into office in 2009 when Democratic Gov. Janet Napolitano joined the Obama administration, Brewer faced a $3 billion revenue deficit on about $9 billion in spending. She cut $1 billion in spending, borrowed $1 billion and successfully asked voters to pass the $1 billion a year sales-tax hike.
That and federal stimulus money got Arizona through the recession, and she used the extra cash to cut corporate taxes by hundreds of millions of dollars, hoping to spur economic development. But the rebound she calls the “Arizona comeback” has stalled, and she’s leaving incoming Republican Gov. Doug Ducey with a projected $1.5 billion gap in the next 18 months, although she says those numbers are inflated.