State budget countdown: 11 days is plenty of time … to hand out business favors

June 19th, 2008, 4:46 pm · Post a Comment · posted by Le Templar

REP. MICHELE REAGAN
   The news is mixed from the Arizona Legislature as the July 1 deadline to adopt a state budget inches another day closer.
   The Legislature actually met today; the first time that lawmakers have put in a four-day work week in June. Well, the House did some work anyway. The Senate basically met on the floor this morning so members could say “hi” to each other before leaving the Capitol for a three-day weekend.
   The House give the final approval to a four-bill package intended to spur further reforms at Child Protective Services. Pushed all session long by Reps. Kirk Adams, R-Mesa, and Jonathon Paton, R-Tucson, the bills focus on forcing CPS to be more open and transparent, holding up its operations to the light of public scrutiny.
   Adams and Paton might disagree, but I think the most sweeping measure is HB2159, which says disciplinary records of state employees are presumed to be public records and open to inspection unless another law says otherwise. While not perfect, the bill would overrule an administrative rule that has kept secret employee records for tens of thousands of state workers, when their colleagues in county, city and school governments have long been available for review. The same voters and residents pay the salaries of those state employees and we should be able to see the records that explain how they are representing us.
   We’ll know in a few days if Gov. Janet Napolitano supports the public receiving this information and the other bills in the CPS reform package.
   Along with the good comes this bit of bad news, the House has found a new way to distract lawmakers from what should be their primary job of passing a state budget. Rep. Michele Reagan, R-Scottsdale, held a special meeting of the House Commerce Committee to explain her plans for a “economic jobs package,” to include new tax credits for solar equipment manufacturing and industrial research; allowing cities to waive construction sales taxes for certain types of real estate development; and permitting Pima County to have an election next year about adopting some tourism taxes to fund new baseball stadiums.
   Reagan is moving ahead this late in the legislative session with the permission of House Speaker Jim Weiers, R-Phoenix. Weiers told the committee he believes the package has the potential to create “tens of thousands of new jobs and hundreds of millions in tax dollars,” which would help ease the state budget problems in a year or two.
   “Either we can be sitting around in the backroom wringing our hands and say ‘woe is me’ or we can be pro-active and look at where we want to be,” Weiers told the committee.
   The problem is this type of stimulus package distorts free markets and is fundamentally unfair because the Legislature would lavish special benefits on favorite or “hot” industries and, through neglect, punish those businesses that aren’t as popular or happen to be in the wrong location. If tax credits and waiving sales taxes can boost the economy, then every business should get these benefits, not a select few that hire the right lobbyists or use the most powerful buzz words.
   Besides, putting this kind of package together on June 19 instead of in March or April is a political maneuver to keep the rank-and-file lawmakers interested and optimistic while legislative leaders sit in the backroom wringing their hands over a budget they can’t finish.
   Meanwhile, the Senate Appropriations Committee has scheduled a hearing for Wednesday next week, where it could consider a strike-everything amendment for an emergency budget. Committee chairman Bob Burns said yesterday in a hearing he’s looking at a measure that would keep critical functions of state government funded for 30 days.