The State Budget: So Where Are We?
As perhaps the most dysfunctional session in Arizona state history drew to a close in the early morning hours of July 1st, one thing became clear. After 6 months of wrangling, Arizona still didn’t have a budget.
Brace Yourselves: Brewer to Release Budget this Week
In her four months as Governor of Arizona, the only action Jan Brewer has taken on the budget has been to slash funding for education, health care, and other services we need for economic recovery.
Now, she is finally ready to put forward a budget only 4 weeks before the end of the Legislative session. This time, she will need well-connected spin doctors to help justify the massive cuts to state services her new budget is likely to contain.
The Arizona Republic reports on some of the plan's leaked details:
• A smaller hit to state agencies: Her plan includes about $425 million in budget cuts, compared with about $660 million in the Republican legislative plans.
• A multiyear phase-out of the education equalization tax: The Republican plan calls for repealing the tax. Phasing the tax out over several years would ease the loss of $250 million in anticipated yearly revenue.
• A sales-tax expansion: The state tax would temporarily include food bought at grocery stores. Most cities tax such purchases, with the notable exceptions of Phoenix, Mesa and Surprise.
• A new tax: She believes the state could raise $1 billion yearly from a temporary increase in the sales tax, which would hike the state rate to 6.6 cents per $1.
If the budget does include hundreds of millions of dollars in cuts, it will be little more than a reprisal of the last budget, which met with widespread public opposition.
Click here to call on the Governor to pass a budget that avoids the mistakes of the past:
Brewer Wants a Special Session, for 400 Students
Having signed into law a budget that laid off over 7000 school employees, Jan Brewer is now pushing for a special session to benefit only 400 students. The Governor is calling for the Legislature to meet to create a tax break for a narrow range of families.
The last budget's education cuts, and the inaction of the Governor on the current one, are creating serious impacts for thousands of students. Given that we still haven't passed a budget that would fund education for every student in Arizona, focusing on just a few hundred is a little confusing.
Public News Service has reactions to Brewer's call for a special session from education leaders in Arizona:
With only six weeks to go before the state's new budget year, Janice Palmer, director of governmental relations for the Arizona School Boards Association, says the legislature should be concentrating instead on finding a way to fund education for the state's one million public school students.
"A special session for about 400 special-ed students versus 120,000 special-ed students that are in public schools; it really shows that the priorities are not correct."
You can take action right now by telling the Governor to focus on ALL our kids by passing a fair budget in THIS session:
Governor, Legislature Finally Take Action on Budget
Jan Brewer has signed into a law a bill that sets up a raid on school districts' funds for the next fiscal year.
Some measures in the bill reflect reflect proposals from community organizations, such as payment delays for one day and accepting the stimulus dollars. The most troubling aspect, however, is the decision to force school districts to operate only based on cash reserves for the rest of the year.
State payments to K-12 districts will be delayed under this plan, but districts will be forced to compensate those payments from their own cash reserves.
The Arizona Republic reports that the plan is falling under bipartisan criticism:
Democratic opponents argue that the plan once more balances the state budget on the backs of schools and universities. Assistant Senate Minority Leader Rebecca Rios, D-Apache Junction, said the state plan to claim the school-district funding amounts to a "backdoor tax increase."
"The local-property taxpayer will make up 100 percent of the cash balance taken by the state," said Rep. Tom Boone, R-Peoria. Boone also is president of the Deer Valley Unified School District, and is one of two House Republicans to vote against the budget fix.
We can still expect more legislative movement on the budget in the weeks ahead, so be sure to keep up the pressure on the Governor and Legislature to do the right thing:
SEIU Joins Coalition to Call for a Better State Budget
Along with a group of over 20 community organizations, SEIU members have engaged in a campaign to pass a budget that adequately funds state services.
The Arizona Budget Coalition has come together to make sure Arizona has the education, health care, and other vital services we need to create economic recovery. The Coalition includes the faith community and advocates for children, victims of domestic violence, the homeless, seniors, education, and much more.
SEIU is calling for a better state budget following cuts that devastated state employees and services. Richard Whatley, an SEIU member and state employee, was there to explain how his work has been impacted by last January's reckless cuts.
"There are more and more people coming to us for assistance to find work, and there are fewer and fewer of us to help them. Budget cuts have devastated our department. We have 3 categories of cases, and now we don’t have the funding to respond to any of them. We don’t even have enough people to make the most out of the stimulus funds," Richard said.
The Arizona Republic reports that although some State Legislators are still proposing service cuts, they taking notice of our campaign to create a better budget:
"I'm willing to look at anything that might move the budget in the right direction," said Russell Pearce, chairman of the Senate Appropriations Committee. But he said he believes the budget needs at least $700 million in cuts to balance, and to put the state in position to weather even tougher budget times in the near future.
A budget approved by the House Appropriations Committee earlier this week contained $650 million in cuts.
John Kavanagh, chairman of the House Appropriations Committee, noted that some of the options are ideas raised by Republican leadership, such as selling state assets or borrowing against the revenue stream from the state lottery.
"Some of this stuff I find tasteful and some of this stuff I wouldn't order," Kavanagh said.
In the photo below, Tim Schmaltz of the Protecting Arizona's Family Coalition explains the Coalition's budget options to the media.
Stay tuned for more coverage from the event.
Brewer Offers Few Details on Stimulus Funds
Even though the stimulus funds play an important role in most budget proposals in the Legislature, Gov. Brewer has said little about the funds, and hasn't even submitted an application that would clarify how the money would be spent.
In spite of Brewer's inaction, Legislators have decided to create budget proposals that include use of the stimulus money. So far, they are shooting in the dark, as negotiations with the Governor's office will ultimately decide how this important part of the budget will be determined.
The stimulus funding would provide support to unemployment insurance, health care, and help to create 21st century jobs that would stimulate our struggling economy. A lack of clarity on how to apply this assistance could prove costly for Arizona.
The Associated Press reports that with only 40 days left in the Legislative session, the Governor isn't willing to discuss much about the stimulus package:
The new House Republican proposal formally unveiled this week anticipates spending an additional $570 million of stabilization money on K-12 schools and universities to help close a new, growing shortfall in the same budget.
Is Brewer willing to use that much additional stimulus money or even more to keep the current budget in the black?
"That is part of the negotiations obviously," replied [Brewer spokesperson Paul Senseman].
Senseman said there are other options for keeping the current budget balanced, but he declined to identify them during an interview.
"I'm not prepared to discuss those with you," he told The Associated Press.
