As state lawmakers prepare for a likely special session next week on the state budget, they have received another big, flashing-red warning light that Arizona’s finances are stumbling downhill faster than most other states. Wednesday’s report from the Pew Center on the States really didn’t say anything different than most people in Arizona already knew. The Goldwater Institute noted way back in January that the scope of this state’s budget shortfall was not far behind California. By July, national media were talking about how Arizona’s deficit was one of the worst in the country.
But any holiday tends to be a slow news day (Wednesday was Veterans Day), and Pew took advantage of that to get a fresh round of broadcast sound bites and print stories covering its report.
One issue emphasized in the Pew report that lawmakers must pay attention to: the Legislature has used up most of the short-term spending fixes and accounting gimmicks. Balancing the budget will require serious, long-term policy changes. Huge spending cuts are inevitable, and higher taxes or additional user fees might be unavoidable as well.
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In the past session the Arizona Legislature thought it was more important to allow individuals to carry guns into bars, and passing more anti-abortion bills than it to get the fiscal house in order. The current legislature and governor are incapable of planning for the long-term.
Arizona can’t be broke. ASU, at Michael Crow’s behest, is still dragging former Prof. Kathryn Milun through the courts. Milun won her discrimination case with the EEOC and Crow’s own faculty committee who said she would be reinstated. Litigation is costly, very costly. AZ can’t be broke if Crow can spend so much money on Milun’s four year case and other fired faculty he doesn’t like.
And this is Time Magazine’s top leaders.
He wastes our money of which we don’t have much. It’s time for new leadership all aroune in and outside the legislature. Will we get it? Thats another story.,
CUT CUT CUT!!!!! Just go back to the 2006 budget and we will have a surplus. What is so hard???
The report from the Pew Center on the states shows Arizona is one of the 10 most troubled states with fiscal problems and economic pressures.
Same conditions as California; State revenue, size of budget gaps, unemployment and foreclosure rates, poor money management practices, and state laws governing the passage of budgets.
Since becoming Arizona governor, Jan Brewer has been dominated to get state budget in place. Efforts to raise sales and property taxes to deal with the Napolitano Deficit, which was caused by rampant overspending during the past six years.
The state of Arizona depends heavily on a growing economy to bring in tax revenue. State lawmakers have relied on one-time fixes to balance its budget instead of making long-term changes.