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PHOENIX — A House panel voted Monday to spend state tax dollars to put National Guard troops on the border to actually begin apprehending those who cross the border illegally.

The 6-4 vote by the House Committee on Homeland Security and Property Rights would authorize Gov. Janet Napolitano to deploy Guard units in cases of a declared emergency because of "unauthorized border crossings" resulting in an increase in deaths, crime and property damage.

Rep. Warde Nichols, R-Chandler, said Napolitano probably can already do that. But HB 2766 actually would give her the necessary $10 million, enough said Nichols for 100 soldiers for a year.

But the measure comes with a hitch: The soldiers actually would have to be in the primary role of catching border crossers. That differs from the approximately 2,000 Guard troops now in Southern Arizona doing support functions ranging from surveillance to repairs.

Monday's vote came over the objections of the four Democrats on the panel. Rep. Steve Gallardo, D-Phoenix, said it made no sense to spend state tax dollars when the federal government is finally putting major resources into the region.

Gallardo made a similar argument against HB 2473, which would provide $25 million over two years to the state Department of Emergency and Military Affairs to set up a high-tech system to spot people entering this country illegally. He said the federal government already has spent more than $1.2 billion along the border on fencing and technology and is prepared to spend another $1 billion this coming budget year.

"For the state right now to spend state taxpayers' money on something the federal government ultimately has responsibility for … would be very irresponsible," he said.

Rep. Russell Pearce, R-Mesa, was unconvinced.

"We've waited 26 years on the federal government," he said. In the meantime, Pearce said, Arizona taxpayers have picked up the costs, including a figure he put at $2 million a year to educate not only illegal immigrants but the U.S.-born children of people who are not supposed to be here in the first place.

Napolitano already has said she does not support having Guard soldiers actually enforcing immigration law.

Even if she lets the bill become law, there is no requirement for her to actually deploy any troops. And legislators lack the constitutional authority to overrule her decisions as the Guard's commander in chief.

But the lawmakers may have some options should Napolitano veto the appropriation for border technology: The same committee approved an identical version of that appropriation, but this one subject to voter approval in 2008 rather than gubernatorial signature or veto.

The committee also approved HB 2765 giving immunity to Guard soldiers who kill or injure people while on duty in Arizona. But the panel first narrowed the scope of that immunity to the same as police officers and limited their freedom from being sued to instances where they are acting under a direct order from a commanding officer or according to standard operating procedures.