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PHOENIX — The head of the Arizona Democratic Party praised Gov. Janet Napolitano for signing a $10.6 billion budget — and suggested that the last four she signed were not in the best interests of the state.

In a press release, state party Chairman David Waid called the spending plan, signed Monday by the governor, a "major achievement for Democrats."

"Arizona deserves a balanced and reasonable budget that reflects our priorities and is based on the principles of fiscal responsibility," Waid said. "Democrats worked hard to pass a budget that does that."

But Waid also said the new spending plan comes "after years of budgets dominated by misplaced priorities and the extreme ideology of Republican leadership." That would include the budgets that Napolitano helped negotiate — and eventually approved — after taking office in 2003.

Waid is not alone in his belief that those prior budgets were not good for the state.

House Minority Leader Phil Lopes, D-Tucson, did not vote for last year's spending plan even after the governor said it was a good deal and agreed to sign it. And Lopes said as recently as last week that he still believes the state is worse off because of that deal — specifically because of the tax cuts that Napolitano agreed to accept.

That 2006 package included a 10 percent across-the-board cut in individual income tax rates.

Lopes complained that while the state was flush with cash last year, it may need that money in the future. But a requirement for a two-thirds vote to raise taxes makes that a virtual political impossibility.

Last year's deal also included a three-year suspension of a special state property tax levy.

Napolitano, though, was unapologetic about agreeing to the deal.

She got the GOP-controlled Legislature to agree to her top priority: more money for education. In fact, the final deal provided $100 million for teacher pay hikes — she sought only $90 million — and $160 million for full-day kindergarten, versus the $105 million requested.

Waid said this year's budget is an improvement because it provides just $11 million in new tax cuts instead of the "reckless tax cuts proposed by House Republicans." The House GOP package included $64 million in tax breaks.

But Napolitano's budget proposal in January included no real tax cuts. In fact, she wanted to borrow $400 million for school construction rather than pay cash to free up that money for her other spending priorities.