ARIZONA TREASURER DEAN MARTIN, LEFT, AND GOV. JANET NAPOLITANO COULDN’T AGREE TODAY ON WHETHER MARTIN’S OFFICE NEEDS TO START NEGOTIATING WITH BANKS FOR A LINE OF CREDIT IN CASE THE STATE RUNS OUT OF OPERATING CASH BEFORE A NEW BUDGET IS ADOPTED. (Photo by Capitol Media Services)

The most interesting news to come out of a special meeting today of something called the state Loan Commission was that Gov. Janet Napolitano attended and put on a rather fiesty performance. There’s been a lot of spectulation that Napolitano has basically checked out of her state job as she prepares for hearings next week on her nomination to be secretary of the Department of Homeland Security. Napolitano has stopped holding weekly media briefings and her last scheduled public appearance here in Arizona was on Dec. 9.

But there she was today, live and in person, fulfilling her duties as chief executive — although she apparently thought the meeting called by state Treasurer Dean Martin was a waste of time. Her actions to prevent Martin from setting a maxium possible interest rate on any borrowing for operating cash, well, that has to raise expectations for the proposed budget her office is expected to release late next week. For Napolitano to be true to her words (”If the Legislature adopts the budget plans that I have proposed … there will be no need for borrowing.”), she’s going to have to come up with a rather compelling approach to fixing a $1.5 billion deficit with more than half of the fiscal year already over.

FORMER ILLINOIS ATTORNEY GENERAL RONALD BURRIS, LEFT, MET EARLIER TODAY WITH SENATE MAJORITY HARRY REID, D-NEV., ABOUT BURRIS’ APPOINTMENT TO THE U.S. SENATE (Associated Press photo).

U.S. Senate Democrats are cowards. All we heard for two weeks was how the Senate would not accept the stench of corruption around Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich, and so lawmakers would refuse to seat anyone that Blagojevich might appoint to replace President-elect Barack Obama. But now it looks like Blagojevich’s choice, Ronald Burris, will become a senator after all.

I hadn’t never heard of Burris before Blagojevich made the appointment last week. Burris might be a perfectly reasonable choice. I don’t care.

Even if Blagojevich isn’t guilty of the FBI charges against him, his lawyers have basically admitted that the Illinois governor ”talked” over the telephone in detail about selling the Senate seat appointment to the highest bidder.

I was thrilled when the Illinois secretary of state refused to confirm Blagojevich’s nomination. And it was exciting to hear that Democrats in Washington would stand up to some of their Illinois colleagues and insist that no one with such a insidious taint join their hallowed halls. It was a sign that Democrats in 2009 might actually be serious about changing the political culture in Washington; to start setting some higher standards for our national leaders.

Now, Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., whines about protecting Blogojevich’s prerogatives as governor. And Reid, as always, wants to play nice with the person standing in front of him instead of supporting the larger, most important principle.

It now looks like that Illinois secretary of state is the only person preventing Burris from getting the job. It’s simply disgusting.

                 KRIS MAYES

Kris Mayes used to aggressively report on Arizona politicians as a journalist for the state’s largest newspaper; now she ranks as one of the political elite after being selected today for a two-year term as chairwoman of the Arizona Corporation Commission. The commission is sometimes called the state’s fourth branch of government because of the independent status conferred by the state constitution and the commission’s exclusive right to regulate private utilities and intra-state railroad lines. 

Mayes is more highly educated than your average newspaper beat writer with a master’s degree in public administration from Columbia University and a law degree from Arizona State University. Her peak as a reporter came in 2000 when she covered full-time the first presidential campaign of John McCain for the Arizona Republic. It was after Mayes left the Republic and while she was in law school that she started to cross over into the political process by serving as the media spokeswoman for Janet Napolitano’s campaign for governor in 2002.

In 2003, activists within the state Republican Party immediately dismissed Mayes when Napolitano elevated her from press secretary to a vacant position on the Arizona Corporation Commission. Political strategists assumed voters would view Mayes as a Napolitano toadie instead of on her own merits. Social conservatives believed Mayes would be tripped up by her lack of a pro-life record.

Mayes herself told me at the time that her critics were ignoring the fact that she is a lifelong registered Republican from Prescott, one of the deepest GOP strongholds in the state. I also suspect Mayes’ critics didn’t look at her resume very closely, as her master’s thesis on electric deregulation implied she had the background and skills to handle the job of corporation commissioner. Using HighGround as her campaign strategy firm in 2004 and 2006 also made a difference. That’s the same firm that’s now guiding the transition for Gov.-to-be Jan Brewer.

There’s no question Mayes has been the most visible member of the commission in the past five years, from her relentless advocacy for renewable energy standards to her pointed challenges to APS and its repeated requests for utility rate hikes. She’s constantly traveling the state and proving her commitment to the job.

On a more personal note: Mayes cemented my respect for her a few years ago. She had tracked me down while I was on an out-of-town weekend trip to complain about a story I had written about her. We debated passionately more than a hour by telephone. Later, after we both had cooled off, she sent me a handwritten note saying that in hindsight she understood I had written the story as fairly as I could and she appreciated that I listened further to her point of view. It’s rare that a politician or anyone else shows so much class.

ARIZONA STATE TREASURER DEAN MARTIN (Photo by Capitol Media Services)

We all know the state of Arizona has huge money problems. But if State Treasurer Dean Martin’s projections are accurate, Arizona is going to be begging for cash from the banks, from China or from just about anyone willing to float a few billion dollars in loans.

Martin held a news conference and sent out a press release this afternoon with the really, really bad news — the state might have to borrow $2.5 billion to $5 billion just to keep operating through the end of the fiscal year on July 1. And the next budget could be even worse.

“The new Legislature and Governor must address this problem quickly or the State will be looking at bankruptcy next year,” Martin said.

If Martin sounds a little bit like Chicken Little, it’s because his projections assume the Legislature and the incoming Gov. Jan Brewer wouldn’t act to get the budget in order. He’s offering the worse-case, completely unlikely scenario; if only to intimidate timid policy makers who think the state can just take on a little more debt until the economy turns around and tax revenues climb again. Martin’s warnings also lay the groundwork to convince the public that painful but fundamental reforms are needed to the budgeting process. Some Republican lawmakers started talking last summer about asking voters in a special election to reduce or eliminate spending mandates, primarily as they apply to education and health care.

Many Tribune readers will recognize the names of four veteran journalists behind a political news Web site scheduled to launch Monday called The Arizona Guardian. Patti Epler, Paul Giblin, Mary K. Reinhart and Dennis Welch are working together to develop something along the lines of a Politico.com for Arizona. The four say they intend to offer a mix of breaking news and nonpartisan analysis that appeals to people who work in government and those who have to constantly work with government (such as lobbyists and political party activitists). They will compete immediately in a specialized market that up to now has been dominated by the Arizona Capitol Times and the growing crop of independent (and mostly part-time) political blogs.

What’s really interesting about The Arizona Guardian is its business model, which will attempt to deny the Internet culture of everything should be free. This Web site will be subscription-based, with most of its reporting available only to readers who pay up front.

The money behind this venture comes from Bob Grossfeld, known in political circles as president of a Scottsdale political strategy and advertising firm called The Media Guys. Grossfeld works for Democrats and progressive groups, so Epler, Giblin, Welch and Reinhart will have to demonstrate quickly in writing their commitment to keep Grossfeld’s politics out of the Guardian’s pages.

UPDATE: The folks at the Arizona Guardian asked me to be clear that the five people I mentioned (Epler, Giblin, Grossfeld, Welch and Reinhart) are all equal owners in the Web site. Grossfeld is providing the business support while the other four will guide the journalism.

Senate President-designate Bob Burns

The winter holidays are over, a New Year has arrived, and much of Arizona’s political attention now turns the pending opening of a new Legislature followed shortly thereafter by a new governor (unless Janet Napolitano unexpectedly runs into confirmation problems with the U.S. Senate). This could be a legislative session unlike any other in living memory — if incoming Senate President Bob Burns has anything to say about it.

Burns has pledged to prevent any bill from reaching the Senate floor until the Legislature has addressed the state’s massive budget problems. This promise hasn’t really discouraged rank-and-file lawmakers from writing up bills, with House members filing more than 900 proposals and the Senate adding another 550 so far.

Legislative leaders have tried before to halt all business to compel lawmakers to focus on budget matters like a laser. One prominent example was in 2002, when all bills were frozen in their tracks mid-session for about three weeks.

While this tactic makes lots of common sense to outsiders, it never has worked as legislative leaders intend. As a budget deal wasn’t immediately forthcoming, those lawmakers not involved in the closed-door negotiations (and that would be most of them) would get bored and then anxious about their special bills slowing twisting in the wind. They would start linking their support for specific budget proposals to getting their own bills moving again. Legislative leaders couldn’t appear to be giving special treatment, so they turned the spout on again, bills resumed flowing through the legislative session, and the budget would again be rushed to a finish at the end of the session.

However, it could be much different this year. Burns strikes me as committed enough or stubborn enough to withstand psychological pressure for a long time. He will have a loyal ally in this endeavor with his appropriations chairman, Sen.-elect Russell Pearce, R-Mesa, who has pointed out repeatedly that adopting a balanced budget is the only action that the Legislature is required to do by the state constitution.

And at the outset, Democratic leaders Rep. David Lujan and Sen. Jose Luis Garcia have said they support no action on non-budget bills until the fiscal woes are handled. It’s going to hard for them to take back these public statements later and criticize Burns or incoming House Speaker Kirk Adams, R-Mesa, for holding up measures not directly related to spending or taxes.

In January and February, we should see one of the most interesting sets of early days in a legislative session in Arizona history.

Original image at blogs.cars.com

A lot of people have scoffed at my hobby of hypermiling to extend my car’s gasoline mileage, thus saving money, protecting the environment and helping to defeat oil-funded terrorists. But it turns out that hypermiling really is catching on. NPR’s Talk of the Nation mentioned the issue last Friday during a segment on techie words and developments of 2008 (Hat tip to Kimberly Hundley). As the show noted, hypermiling actually was named Word of the Year by the publishers of the New Oxford American Dictionary. These experts of the English language were fascinated by the amount of attention hypermiling received after crude oil/gasoline prices skyrocketed early this summer.

As for my own techniques, unfortunately my average mileage has continued to slip, now down to about 41 miles per gallon from my early high of 45 mpg. I can point to a number of reasons including some problems I’ve had with my tires, the colder weather, and heavier commuter traffic to negotiate with school in full swing and the return of winter visitors. But I suspect the biggest factor is simply the surprising fall in gas prices over the past couple of months. Hypermiling requires a lot of focus and concentration to do correctly. Less concerned about the cost of commuting, I’m not committed to following hypermiling techniques every time I drive.

At least I haven’t fallen back into all of my bad habits.  I don’t speed. I check my tires more now (once I got the problems solved). I try to avoid stop-and-go traffic. And 41 mpg is still better than my average before hypermiling of 37 mpg. But one new year’s resolution will be to pick up hypermiling more often. Let’s see if I can boost my gas mileage again.

“And because Joseph was a member of the royal line he had to go to Bethlehem in Judea, King David’s ancient home — journeying there from the Galilean village of Nazareth. He took with him Mary, his fiancee, who was obviously pregnant at the time.

“And while they were there, the time came for her baby to be born; and she gave birth to her first child, a son. She wrapped him in a blanket and laid him in a manager, because there was no room for them in the village inn.”
– Luke 2: 4-7 (The Living Bible, parahrased)

Merry Christmas, everyone!

The Arizona Court of Appeals today rejected most of the $97.4 million subsidy that Phoenix offered to land the CityNorth shopping development near Scottsdale Road and Loop 101. The court agreed with the Goldwater Institute that the subsidy generally violates the Arizona Constitution’s “gift clause.” Phoenix tried to claim the subsidy was justified because it paid for a 3,100-vehicle parking garage with guaranteed free parking for the public. Instead, the court said the city could only legally pay for 200 spaces reserved for commuters who park and ride on public transit. The rest of the subsidy is an unconstitutional benefit to private interests, the opinion says.

The appellate decision overrules a lower court that found what Phoenix did was just fine. So it’s easy to predict that Phoenix and CityNorth will further appeal to the Arizona Supreme Court. But this ruling gives new credence to the move of the Goldwater Institute to challenge the subsidy and inject new life into the “gift clause.”

I haven’t found a lot of time (or material) to blog about lately. But I haven’t seen any coverage of a new policy report from the Goldwater Institute on resolving the state’s predicted $1.2 billion budget deficit from a libertarian perspective. That means no tax or government fee increases and no additional debt; just whacking away at state government funding, which has grown by an estimated 67 percent since 2004.

Goldwater takes a “no sacred cows” approach, relying heavily on various budget reduction proposals in the past six years offered by legislative budget staff but never approved by the full Legislature. The report also takes into account that the state’s fiscal year is about six months over, so nearly half of the $10 billion General Fund budget already has been spent. Some highlights include:

• $210 million, or a 15 percent cut, for the Arizona Health Cost Containment System (the state Medicaid insurance program). Goldwater suggests that lawmakers let the agency figure out where to find the savings, but does offer some ideas including raising insurance premiums, double-checking the eligibility of applicants and shrinking overhead. Goldwater also urges elimination of any benefit not required for federal matching funds, which could save more money.
• $100 million by eliminating full-day kindergarten and going back to state-funded half-day kindergarten. This would become a yearly savings of $200 million.
• $100 million, or a 10 percent cut, to the state’s three public universities.
• $95 million, or a 10 percent cut, to the state prison system. Goldwater wants lawmakers to make addition nonviolent offenders eligible for early parole and home monitoring. Maricopa County Andrew Thomas might have a particular objection to this, as he has argued the state should be sending more criminals to prison, not less.
• Another $69.5 million in state aid to school districts and other K-12 education programs.
• $61 million, or a 10 percent cut, to the Department of Health Services. Goldwater acknowledges this would force the state to reduce vaccinations and immunization information, disease surveillance and research, and poison control assistance.
• Save about $36 million by eliminating the arts commission, the Department of Commerce and the state tourism office. Goldwater has previously urged the Legislature to abolish these agencies and transfer any critically needed programs elsewhere.

In its conclusion, the Goldwater Institute admits its comprehensive list still would leave a $140 million deficit this year. It also doesn’t address what happens with the next budget that starts July 1. Across-the-board cuts of 10 percent are practically inevitable, and I think full-day kindergarten seriously faces elimination with the make-up of the next Legislature and Janet Napolitano no longer in the governor’s office. But the real value of Goldwater’s report is to illustrate the true depth of the fiscal crisis and how difficult it will be for the Legislature to fix.

You can read the full report if you click on the picture of the front page at the top of this post.