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PHOENIX — By a wide margin, the House of Representatives voted Wednesday to immediately freeze virtually all new hiring in state and university government, setting the stage for a showdown with Gov. Janet Napolitano.

The 40-15 vote came just hours after the governor insisted such drastic action is not necessary.

"We're taking our own internal actions," Napolitano said, pointing out that she instructed state agency chiefs in September "to, in essence, slow hiring and do only what they absolutely need to do that's mission-critical."

But Rep. Bob Robson, R-Chandler, pointed out the state still is actively trying to fill 300 positions despite the deficit, which is approaching $1.2 billion. These range from assistant attorneys general and registered nurses to park rangers, a tour guide and a state demographer.

Napolitano, however, called the listings meaningless.

"They're going to be posted," she said. "That doesn't mean they're going to be filled."

But figures from the state Department of Administration show workers who quit are being replaced.

An analysis shows from Oct. 1 — the beginning of the month after Napolitano sent out her letter — until mid-February there were 1,931 workers who left state government while 2,205 people were hired in the same period.

Those numbers do not include universities, which have their own hiring systems.

Napolitano said those numbers include not just filling vacancies but also hiring people for new positions.

"And to the extent there are new hires, they are in the fields of public safety, for example, where the Legislature expressly allocated and funded positions to account for growth," she said.

Press aide Shilo Mitchell said lawmakers approved 513 new positions last year, though she said some were not filled and others who were hired were offset by people quitting.

The bottom line, said Mitchell, is when public health and safety jobs are excluded from the list, Arizona actually had 80 fewer workers in January than it did when the budget year began in July. And the state's biweekly payroll has not increased since July.

Robson, however, said something more formalized is necessary.

"We all know the first thing you do in helping to manage a business is, you look and you try and preserve the employees you have," he said. "The other is not to bring on added debt, or at least freeze it along the line, step back, take a deep breath, see where you need to be."

And Robson said a hiring freeze would tell Arizonans, "We're taking this budget crisis seriously."

Robson said the legislation provides sufficient flexibility. The final version has exceptions for public health and safety as well as allowing the Department of Administration to grant an exemption if a position is "critical to the functioning of the budget unit."

And even university presidents are given that same exemption-granting authority for schools under their jurisdiction.

The legislation is shaping up to be much more than just a fight between the Republican-controlled Legislature and the Democratic governor. Eight of the 23 Democrats on the floor at the time voted to support the measure.