mbryan's shared items in Google Reader

Never Has The Cold, Clammy Hand of Consistency…

Tedski — Thu, 11 Mar 2010 07:17:59 PST

Has anyone noticed that the same folks who think Tucson should be forced to have non-partisan elections are the same ones who want to ban independent voters from Republican primaries?

Republican gubernatorial debate coming to Sabino High School. (Guess who's moderating!)

Luke Knipe — Sat, 13 Mar 2010 04:29:10 PST

Arizona Republican gubernatorial primary contenders Governor Jan Brewer, lawyer/lobbyist John Munger, State Treasurer Dean Martin and Maricopa County gun range entrepreneur Owen "Buz" Mills are scheduled to appear at Sabino High School on April 23 for a debate sponsored by the Sabino High School Young Republican Club and the Pima GOP's Eastside Republican Club. The moderator, according to an announcement emailed to Republican supporters, will be the Journal Broadcast Group's Jon LoGiudice, the racist right-wing talk show host who broadcasts under the alias "Jon Justice."

Let's Tax the POOR to provide services for the MIDDLE CLASS...

Greg Patterson — Wed, 10 Mar 2010 09:51:44 PST

I was on Sunday Square Off last month with Democratic Diva Donna Gratehouse and she complained that Arizona has a regressive tax system. My response was that if Democrats don't like a system in which the poor pay a higher percentage of their income in taxes than do the rich and middle class, then the Democrats should stop proposing tax increases on the poor that are used to provided services to the middle class. It's pretty simple really.

Take the Tobacco tax. We know that the poor smoke in disproportionate numbers. We also know that the poor already qualify for AHCCCS. So when folks like the Bashas propose to increase tobacco taxes in order to expand AHCCCS eligibility, they are raising taxes on the poor and the benefits (by definition) go to those who are not poor.

That's fine with me it you want to propose it. Just stop whining about how unfair it is.

Now the Hospital association has a proposal that will undoubtedly be regressive, undoubtedly supported by the state's Democratic Leadership...and whose results will undoubtedly be whined about as "unfair."

The Arizona Hospital and Healthcare Association is working with consultants on an initiative it hopes will make it to the ballot in November. It would raise money to stop the state from cutting more than 310,000 people from the Arizona Health Care Cost Containment System, the state's Medicaid program.

Exactly what form the proposed levy would take has yet to be worked out. Laurie Liles, the association's lobbyist, said consultants and pollsters are looking at what kind of tax would be most palatable to voters. Historically, voters have been particularly receptive to taxing cigarettes; the total levies on those are now $2 per pack.

We don't know what items are going to be taxed, but you can be sure that it's cigarettes, alcohol, soft drinks and a host of other items that the poor consume at a disproportionately high rate. And who does the money go to? The 310,000 people who would otherwise be removed from the AHCCCS roles. And since there are about 1.3 million people on AHCCCS*, those 310,000 represent the highest income tranch of the current AHCCCS population.

Of course, the proposal isn't really about the poor vs. the middle class. The proposal is more about the financial security of the hospitals. Of course, that shouldn't surprise you much...after all, the proposal is from the Hospital association.

Post Script:

Folks from Donna to Warren Buffett have done a great job equating "Regressivity" with "Fairness." After all, why is it fair that a guy living in poverty pays a higher percentage of his income in taxes than a guy living in Paradise Valley? That sounds like a good argument, but it's actually a statistical and rhetorical trick.

Take the guy who lives in poverty. He pays very little actual tax--primarily on tobacco and if he lives in Phoenix a new sales tax on food. He probably pays no income tax or property tax. Of course, what little tax he actually pays can look like a fairly high percentage, because he has almost no income.

But what does he get from the state? Well, if his kids are in school, the state pays about $8,000 per year per kid to educate them and his family has free health care that's worth another $5,000 to $10,000 a year. So if he has 3 kids, he receives about $30,000 a year in direct services from the state.

And the guy in Paradise Valley? He gets the same basic services that the poor guys gets, but he surely has health insurance and his kids are likely grown, or they went to private school. So he pays income taxes and property taxes and gets almost nothing in services while the poor guy pays taxes on his cigarettes and gets $30K a year in direct benefits.

That's fine with me. We live in a democracy and the people say that wealthy people should pay more so that poor people have a better standard of living. I'm OK with that.

But stop whining that it's unfair! Stop telling the poor guy with his free school and his free healthcare that he's being abused by the process because he pays $2 a pack tax on cigarettes. And stop lecturing my about how heartless I am to support such an unfair system.

Finally, if you think it's bad that poor people pay a higher percentage of their income in taxes...stop supporting tax increases on poor people.

Footnote: There are currently about 1.4 million people on AHCCCS. When I was in the legislature, there were about 80,000. Over the last 20 years, the system has morphed from a safety net for the poor into the preferred form of insurance for 20% of the state's population. That policy shift has had remarkably little debate.

Reluctant Yes, At Best

Tedski — Wed, 10 Mar 2010 13:56:38 PST

I’ve recieved a few e-mails and warnings about the perils of not passing the sales tax hike. The lege has two budgets, one if the sales tax referendum passes, the other if it doesn’t. The “B” budget, which would presumably be in place should the referendum fail, makes additional cuts of, among other things, $428 million from K-12 education and $107 million from our universities.

Given that our back is to the wall on this one, I can see why people who otherwise don’t support regressive sales taxes are for this thing.

I wonder though: given that the legislature has been going after funds that are protected by voters in previous initiatives, what assurance can we have that they will keep this pledge to spend the money on education and not make further cuts? They don’t seem to respect the will of the voters when the force of law is behind it, what hope do we have when all we have got from them is a wink and kind words?

United front: Grijalva, Giffords say no to Paton's Law

Luke Knipe — Wed, 10 Mar 2010 07:16:49 PST

On Monday, U.S. Representative Gabrielle Giffords told PocoBravo she disapproves of SB 1123, the new Arizona law forcing ward-only, non-partisan elections upon the City of Tucson, even though the city's electorate does not want them. The law, sponsored last year by former state Senator Jonathan Paton, was passed by the Republican-dominated Arizona legislature and is strategically intended to elect more Republicans in Democrat-dominated Tucson by hiding their party affiliations from voters on ballots.

Me and Mike Hein

Luke Knipe — Tue, 09 Mar 2010 15:10:58 PST

Tucson City Manager Mike Letcher, to borrow a term from the Obama Administration, inherited a mess. Even under the best of economic and political circumstances, the job still comes with the stress and responsibility of being a public chief executive with whom the buck theoretically stops in all the city’s administrative matters. Unlike a corporate COO, your organization’s messy operational details are legally available for anyone’s inspection—including, in Tucson’s case, nasty media elements bent on marginalizing government in general. Your email and phone number is available to everyone in town, and your phone rings a lot. Your assistants are overwhelmed. You, even more. You’re not directly accountable to the city’s voters, but rather a six-person council unlikely to agree with each other about a lot of things, including whether you’re worth keeping. Current economic conditions are of course far from favorable, and though Letcher seems to possess the requisite degree of coolness under fire, I’ll venture my own shorthand analysis: these days, that job can really suck.

ProPublica: Az's unemployment fund will be insolvent in six months

Olga Pierce — Tue, 09 Mar 2010 10:41:19 PST

The nation’s unemployment insurance system, including Arizona’s, is in crisis due to a combination skyrocketing unemployment and – in some cases – poor planning.

Arizona At A Taxing Crossroads

Arizona Kid — Tue, 09 Mar 2010 04:11:21 PST

Tucson and Southern Arizona news from KVOA.com

My Dear Friends: A Fictional Op-Ed by John McCain

Guest Opinion — Mon, 08 Mar 2010 22:08:36 PST

My Dear Friends…

The following (fictional) op-ed was written on behalf of Senator John McCain, were he ever to actually tell the truth to Arizona voters.

My Dear Friends,

I’d like to introduce myself to you because many of you have moved to Arizona since the last time I ran for election to the United States Senate. My name is John McCain. I currently serve as your senior U.S. Senator. I’d like to continue doing so. Please.

Some of you may remember me from the few times I stopped by the state during my presidential campaign. Some others of you may think I’m still running for president. I sometimes get that confused myself. Just kidding. I know I lost.

I’m running for re-election to the Senate because I am not Bob Dole, my friends, and Pfizer is not breaking down any doors, begging me to be the next spokesman for, well, you know. Besides, all the pharmaceutical companies are sending enough money my way as it is. Which is why I was trying to kill the vitamin and nutritional supplement companies which compete with our honest, hardworking prescription drug companies that stand to lose a lot of money if people like you, my friends, keep buying vitamins to stay healthy.

Point of order, my friends. I’m no longer for putting the vitamin companies out of business. I know I wrote the bill, but I was misled. I was for it before I was against it. You can imagine the ribbing I’ve taken from John Kerry over that one! Man, is he a sore loser! But since we both lost to George Bush, I guess I know what he’s going through. That’s why we both voted against those pesky Bush tax cuts.

Um. Another point of order, my friends. About those tax cuts I just mentioned? I may have voted to kill them, but I support them now. I’m really sorry I voted against them. Twice. We don’t actually read the bills much over in the Senate and I was very probably misled that they repealed the marriage penalty and eliminated the death tax. Again, my bad.

I’d like to take this opportunity to apologize to Governor Brewer, and to thank her for her gracious endorsement. I know I was supposed to return the favor by endorsing the sales tax increase she’s putting on the ballot. Ordinarily I would have. It’s nothing at all like those tax cuts I opposed… oh, and which Congress is now repealing. Welcome back death tax! But the thing of it is, my friends, it’s an election year and I just don’t support tax hikes in election years.

Now, something else I’m taking a bit of heat over these days is my votes for what the press has callously called the “bailouts” of banks and auto companies and for supporting bailouts of big mortgage lenders who have been accused of taking advantage of people by selling them homes they couldn’t afford. My friends, these aren’t bailouts. These are strategic investments in the economic future of our great nation meant to stabilize our markets and provide for a steady flow of not just bonuses to disgruntled AIG executives but also PAC contributions to my campaign.

My friends, I’d just say this: the economy is very complex issue. I’ve been in Washington for 28 years, and sometimes I don’t even understand it. Do you know how small the national debt was when I was first elected to Congress? Why, our government budgets weren’t anywhere close to a trillion dollars a year, and last year our deficit alone was more than $1.6 trillion dollars. You see my point? It’s very tricky business and not something you want to entrust to anyone but the most seasoned professional.

Me, I’m Washington through and through. I’m senior on my committees. I’ve been the Republican nominee for president, for Pete’s sake. Why, I’d bet there isn’t a special interest, lobbyist, association or organization inside the Beltway that I don’t intimately know. Which is why I don’t get home to Arizona so much, except in election years. Being in the Senate is a lot of work! Not to mention, it’s a really long flight each time from DC to Arizona.

So, as I’ve said, I would like you voters, my friends, to send me back to Washington for another term in the U.S. Senate. And, as I’ve said, my campaign is not about whatever it is that I’ve done these past 28 years. Rather, it’s about what you think I can do for you. And, really, we’ve got a lot of unfinished business to tackle. There are nearly 12 million illegal immigrants living in America, many of whom pay taxes and whatnot, but who don’t have much to show for it. They can’t even vote! You see my point? Who will speak for them if not me?

And don’t even get me started on energy issues. I’ve tried my darndest to get Cap and Trade passed, but the nay-sayers are screaming it’s a tax hike on families and businesses. Let’s set the record straight once and for all: there is no tax increase in Cap and Trade. When utility companies are forced by government to raise their prices, it is not a tax. Just for once, I’d like to see some honesty in political discourse – or perhaps just none at all. But apparently the Supreme Court isn’t with me on that one either. Better luck next time, right? Right? You’re with me on this, aren’t you?

Well, my friends, that’s my campaign in a nutshell. I hope this letter cleared up any questions you might have had. I’ll do my best to write again soon.

Your friend,

John Sydney McCain

That was Fast...

Greg Patterson — Mon, 08 Mar 2010 19:31:19 PST

Things are quickly falling apart for Andy Thomas.

Last Friday I mentioned that under Rule 3.8, Prosecutors must uphold special ethical requirements.

So when Judge Leonardo referenced Andy Thomas's "attempts to gain political advantage by prosecuting those who oppose him politically...", the judge was pointing out an obvious ethical violation.

I guess I wasn't the only one to notice that point.

PHOENIX -- The Arizona Supreme Court has appointed a special investigator to look into accusations of misconduct against Maricopa County Attorney Andrew Thomas.

That's bad, but it's not the end of Thomas's troubles. The next shoe is the tort case.

Malicious prosecution is a tort and if a civil litigant obtains a ruling that Thomas abused his office, it could cost the County tens of millions of dollars. Multiply that by the number of people whom Thomas has targeted, intimidated, abused or prosecuted and we are dealing with a very large number indeed.

So what's next? Actually, it's what's NOT next. Thomas can't possibly resign to run for Attorney General. Frankly he will be lucky to be an attorney by the time he would take office--and by resigning, he would lose the resources and protection that his office affords. So he's going to stay at the county and hope that his office can continue to pay his legal bills.

So what are the implications...? Well, for one thing, there isn't a conservative Republican in the Attorney General's race. Remember that with an August 24th primary, Conservatives are assuming that they have a turnout advantage. I like Tom Horne, and I've worked well with him, but he's not a favorite among Conservative voters.

So someone is going to jump in the race pretty quickly.

And so it continues - the gutting of Arizona's future

cpmaz — Mon, 08 Mar 2010 19:20:16 PST

Cross-posted at Blog for Arizona...

I and others will do a more complete analysis of the bills that the lege is pushing as its budget "solution", but here is a brief bit on each, mostly from the factsheets prepared by legislative staff. I'm using the House bills here, but the Senate has an identical version of each bill posted, too.

HB2001, general appropriations (fact sheet here) - Many lowlights, too many to list all of them, but here's one - the lege expects to save almost $100 million by eliminating KidsCare, taking away health care from 47,000 Arizona children, but have no fear, they will be spending more than $98 million of that on 6000 new prison beds.

As an aside, they're budgeting almost $40 million for 2000 private prison beds (@$20K per) but $58 million for 4000 new beds in state prisons (~$14.5K per). I thought the rationale behind privatizing prisons was to save money?

HB2002, capital outlay appropriations (fact sheet here)

HB2003, budget procedures; budget reconciliation (fact sheet here) - among other things, mandates a reduction in the pay of all state employees, except for electeds (of course) and 13 unpaid furlough days over the next 2+ fiscal years.

HB2004, regulation; budget reconciliation (fact sheet here)

HB2005, general government; budget reconciliation (fact sheet here)

HB2006, criminal justice; budget reconciliation (fact sheet here) - among other things, eliminates the state Department of Juvenile Corrections. Also pawns off a number of short-term state prisoners onto county jail systems and eliminates the state's Sex Offender Monitoring Fund.

HB2007, environment; budget reconciliation (fact sheet here)

HB2008, K-12 education; budget reconciliation (fact sheet here) - increases assistance paid to charter schools, reduces soft capital (books and other classroom supplies) allocations if the sales tax increase passes in May, eliminates soft capital funding if the tax increase fails, eliminates full-day K, bars new school construction.

HB2009, higher education; budget reconciliation (fact sheet here) - eliminates capital outlay funding for community colleges, reduces the amount of money that the state has to provide to fund financial aid at the state's universities.

HB2010, health; budget reconciliation (fact sheet here) - the list is long and ugly here.

HB2011, welfare; budget reconciliation (fact sheet here) - here, too.

HB2012, revenues; budget reconciliation (fact sheet here) - all sorts of fund sweeps and fee and license hikes.

HB2013, accounting expenses tax credit; repeal (fact sheet here)

HCR2001, early childhood development; health; repeal (fact sheet here) - if approved by the voters, would repeal Prop 203 (related to the title of the measure) and sweep any funds into the state's General Fund.

HCR2002, land conservation fund; reversion (fact sheet here) - Sweeps voter-protected funds from the Land Conservation Fund ($123 million dedicated to preservation of open spaces) into the state's General Fund.

The House Appropriations Committee will meet on Tuesday at 9:30 a.m. to consider the bills; Senate Approps will also meet at 9:30 to consider their chamber's package of bills.

If this all seems rushed, it should - they're trying to fix this year's budget and pass next year's by Wednesday or Thursday. They seem to be attempting to push this stuff through before anyone can really analyze what they're doing and what the real impacts on Arizonans are.

In short, they (the Rs) want to railroad the budget through before anyone can organize an effective response.

More later...

No contest: Miller on track to buy East Valley Tribune after 2nd bidder pulls out

Nick R. Martin — Mon, 08 Mar 2010 11:28:38 PST

Colorado publisher Randy Miller appears poised to take over the East Valley Tribune and its sister papers as early as Wednesday after his main competition to buy the Mesa newspaper dropped out of the contest on Friday.

For the past several months, Stephen Hadland, the chief executive of the Santa Monica Media Company, said he planned to try to outbid Miller for the Pulitzer Prize-winning newspaper.

But Hadland told Heat City on Friday he had been unable to convince his investors to pony up enough cash to jump into a bidding war with a Miller’s Thirteenth Street Media.

“All I can say is I’m very, very disappointed,” said Hadland, who repeatedly called the sale of the Tribune and its sister newspapers “the deal of a lifetime.”

Barring any last-minute surprises, Hadland’s withdraw means that Miller has a clear path to take over the Tribune, as well as the Ahwatukee Foothills News in Phoenix and the Daily News-Sun in Sun City.

The three newspapers are being sold by media giant Freedom Communications, which is trying to earn some quick cash to help it get out from under nearly $1 billion in debt.

That same debt forced Freedom into federal bankruptcy protection last year, and because of that, the sale must be approved by a judge before it can go through.

That approval could come at a hearing scheduled for Tuesday in U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Delaware to discuss the deal. If approved, the sale could be completed as soon as Wednesday.

The bankruptcy, however, also means that Freedom had to open the bidding process to the public and consider any serious offers for the three Phoenix-area newspapers.

In documents filed last month, Freedom told the federal judge overseeing its case that Miller, with his offer of a little more than $2 million, had been the only serious bidder to come forward.

Hadland disputed that, though, saying publicly on several occasions he believed his California-based company had the wherewithal to offer even more but that Freedom was no longer taking him seriously.

In fact, Hadland said he had been in negotiations with Freedom to buy the three newspapers in August, months before they were even officially put on the market. But, he said, those negotiations broke down after he was unable to come up with the cash in time to close the deal.

Freedom confirms earlier deal

Freedom declined for months to comment on Hadland’s claims of an earlier deal. But on Friday, the company broke its silence in a series of documents [PDF] filed in the bankruptcy case.

The documents confirmed that Freedom had agreed to sell the newspapers to Hadland’s Santa Monica Media Company for about $2 million. But, the company said, the deal fell apart when Hadland failed to pay them a $200,000 deposit.

The account matched Hadland’s version of things, but Freedom was using it to tell the judge why the California company should not be taken seriously if it indeed made a play for the newspapers.

But by the time Freedom filed the documents on Friday, the point was already moot.

Hadland said he talked with his investors for the past three weeks and realized on Friday that he could not come up with the cash to challenge Miller’s bid.

Once again, he said his biggest struggle was finding somebody to write a check for the 10 percent down payment that Freedom wanted.

“That’s been my stumbling block,” Hadland said. “Nobody wanted to put up a check for that much.”

It has become a lot harder in recent years to convince lenders to invest in newspapers, he said. “The climate has changed so drastically, getting anything financed is really tough.”

Try, try again

Hadland, whose company operates a small chain of weekly newspapers in California, has long had aspirations of owning a bigger newspaper.

He tried to buy the Tucson Citizen, Arizona’s longest-running newspaper, last year for about $400,000. But the paper’s parent company, Gannett, decided to shut it down instead of selling it at such a low price. The Citizen now operates as a community blogging website.

Hadland also offered to buy the Honolulu Star-Bulletin in Hawaii in 2000 for an undisclosed price. He ultimately lost out to another bidder.

Having failed at least his third major newspaper takeover in 11 years, Hadland said he isn’t giving up his search for the next “deal of a lifetime.”

“I’ll be looking for my next media purchase,” he said. “There’s a lot of newspaper companies in trouble.”

What’s to come

Meantime, this will be a defining week for the East Valley Tribune and its sister papers.

If Randy Miller’s bid is approved on Tuesday, the Tribune will likely undergo almost immediate cutbacks.

Miller, who has not returned multiple phone calls seeking for comment on the deal, has said in prepared statements that he will keep a “significant” number of employees, implying that a number of other employees will be cut.

The current owners, though, have said that the newspaper is losing money at a staggering rate. In court documents, Freedom Communications said the Tribune loses about $60,000 a week, which adds up to a little more than $3 million a year.

That means to simply break even, the new owner will have to cut enough employees or other costs from the budget to make up for the gap.

At that rate, dozens of employees could be eliminated under the new regime unless it can afford to operate with significant losses.

[Full disclosure: I am a former staff reporter for the East Valley Tribune.]

Don’t Tax Me Bro - Small Business Says NO To AZ Sales Tax

Arizona Kid — Thu, 04 Mar 2010 19:30:10 PST

PHOENIX, Ariz., Feb. 25, 2010 – Results from a special poll of Arizona small business owners released today by their leading representative association show 71 percent of them voting ‘No’ on Proposition 100, the May 18 ballot referendum seeking a three-year, 1¢ increase in the state sales tax.

“The response to this special survey of our members on Proposition 100 came back fast and emphatic,” said Farrell Quinlan, Arizona state director for the National Federation of Independent Business, Arizona’s and America’s leading small business association. “NFIB/Arizona is actively exploring how our association and members can be most effective in the campaign to defeat Proposition 100. Small business owners’ opposition to increasing the sales tax is overwhelming and their voice will be heard during the statewide debate over raising our taxes.”

Unique among most associations, NFIB bases its legislative lobbying positions and political action solely on what its members tell it, through regular balloting, are the issues vital to their survival as small business owners. The special ballot on Proposition 100 was faxed and e-mailed February 17-19.

“In conversations I’ve had with many of our members, there seems to be an over-arching attitude that they spend their daily lives balancing revenues with expenditures so they expect state government to do the same,” said Quinlan. “Arizona is not an under-taxed state. We have the fifth-highest sales-tax burden in the nation. The average Arizonan annually pays $1,440.83 in sales taxes, which is 43 percent above the national average. Add to this income taxes and the new state property tax we all pay and Arizonans are indignant that the state must make do with what it has.”

Should Proposition 100, adding 1-cent to the state sales tax rate for 3 years, be passed into law?

Yes 24.8%
No 70.6%
Undecided 4.6%

###

What a McHoot: Rick Romley plays front man for McShaky

seeingredaz — Mon, 08 Mar 2010 10:55:20 PST

On the morning after the Academy Awards, it no doubt dismays his dwindling number of fans that John McCain missed out on being nominated for best supporting actor.

Hauling out former Maricopa County Attorney, Rick Romley to front for his faltering campaign, McCain, the darling of Charlie Keating, has the gall to demand that popular challenger J.D. Hayworth disclose his donor list of supporters who helped retire the legal debt incurred when preparing to fight bogus charges connecting him to a disreputable D.C. lobbyist — prior to becoming a candidate for U.S. Senate. As both McCain and Romley are aware, the U.S. Department of Justice vindicated Hayworth and no charges were ever filed against him. The substantiating letter can be read here.

Still, it makes great headlines for yet another Dan Nowicki article in the daily. Nowicki is the newspaper’s McCain point man, paid to slather the longtime “Mavericky” Washington insider with praise.

Romley is the ideal person for the aisle-crossing McCain to haul out of obscurity to give him a hand. Although elected under the Republican banner, Romley has been a dependable supporter of Democrats. And before he picked up his current gig working for the Maricopa County Board of Supervisors — along with the Republic’s former editorial writer Richard de Uriarte — Romley worked for Democrats Terry Goddard and Phil Gordon.

He also endorsed Democrats Dan Saban for Sheriff and onetime ACLU lawyer Tim Nelson to head his old office. These forays into LeftieLand are nothing new for Romley. He endorsed liberal Chris Cummiskey for Secretary of State over conservative Jan Brewer back in 2002. It mattered not to Romley that five times in Arizona history, the Secretary of State ascended to the Governor’s office. But in the end, his endorsements meant so little that all the Democrats lost.

Seeing Red AZ covered Romley’s incessant pettiness and liberal leanings previously here and here.

Arizona Political News did an exposé on Romley’s liberal Democrat nephew who also won his endorsement. This classy guy broke Romley’s losing streak and is now a Justice of the Peace.

State Agencies Offer Guide to Fixing State Budget

Goldwater Institute — Mon, 08 Mar 2010 13:34:51 PST

Goldwater Institute
News Release

PHOENIX–As Arizona legislators convene for a special session focused on closing the state’s budget deficit, they could save billions by adopting recommendations made by various state agencies to streamline operations, says a Goldwater Institute policy memo sent to lawmakers last week.

Last fall, Governor Jan Brewer directed all state agencies to explain how they would handle a potential 15 percent reduction in funding. State agencies responded with lists of programs and services that could be scaled back or managed in ways that rely less on general tax dollars. In a December special session, the Legislature approved some of those suggestions and generally reduced funding for agencies not related to public education by 7.5 percent.

Arizona’s projected budget deficit for this fiscal year still stands at $700 million and could reach $2.6 billion in the next fiscal year that begins July 1, according to the Joint Legislative Budget Committee.

The Legislature could eliminate most of the deficit simply by committing to the full 15 percent in reductions and following through on other recommendations that state agencies offered months ago, writes Dr. Byron Schlomach, an economist with the Goldwater Institute.

“The state agencies themselves have provided a roadmap for Arizona to navigate out of its fiscal crisis,” said Schlomach. “Those recommendations coupled with a few additional steps that would lead to better long-term budget policy would allow the Legislature to eliminate more than $2 billion in spending, without crippling state government and without any general tax increases.”

In addition to combining some boards and commissions with existing agencies, in some cases, Dr. Schlomach suggests entirely new agency funding models:

· Allow the Department of Insurance to become self-funding and supported entirely by the industry it regulates, instead of supported by the general taxpayer. Total savings: $5.6 million

· Keep state parks open by allowing private companies to collect the gate fees and keep them maintained. Total savings: $20 million

· Eliminating the Automobile Theft Authority and allow the Attorney General to manage any required functions. Total savings: $5 million

· Give state government workers health care plans more closely matched to health care plans offered to taxpayers who work for private companies, like HSAs with high-deductible insurance plans. Total savings: $80 million

Read Dr. Schlomach’s memo on Arizona’s budget reduction opportunities here, or call (602) 462-5000 to have a copy sent to you by mail.

The Goldwater Institute is an independent government watchdog supported by people who are committed to expanding free enterprise and liberty.

McCain not ready to endorse Brewer

Dennis Welch — Sun, 07 Mar 2010 23:20:56 PST

By Dennis Welch
The Arizona Guardian

Sen. John McCain said he’s not ready to endorse Gov. Jan Brewer even though she's publicly announced her support for him.

McCain also said he hasn’t “given much attention” to the governor’s 1-cent sales tax referral or knows how he intends to vote on one of the state’s most pressing political issues.

J.D. Hayworth: No to sales tax increase

(author unknown) — Mon, 08 Mar 2010 13:35:00 PST

U.S. Senate challenger J.D. Hayworth announced Monday his is opposing the proposed $3 billion, three-year state sales tax increase aimed at helping the state solve a $5 billion budget shortfall.

Arizona Bishops Thomas Olmsted and Gerald Kicanas Blast Russell Pearce's Bigoted Bills SB 1070 and HB 2632

Stephen Lemons — Tue, 09 Mar 2010 11:34:23 PST

The Bishops of the Arizona Catholic Conference, which includes the Dioceses of Phoenix, Tucson, and Gallup, New Mexico, issued a statement today criticizing state Senator Russell Pearce...

Continue reading "Arizona Bishops Thomas Olmsted and Gerald Kicanas Blast Russell Pearce's Bigoted Bills SB 1070 and HB 2632" >

Mills launches campaign commercial

Blogger — Mon, 08 Mar 2010 15:38:32 PST

Millionaire and gun-enthusiast Buz Mills is the first candidate to go on the air with a TV commercial. Here is the latest from Mills.

Doesn't say much, but it doesn't really have to at this point. Mills is a virtual unknown and its going to take a sizeable amount of money just to get his name out there to be part of the conversation.

Rs push phony budget from behind closed doors

DRP — Fri, 12 Mar 2010 09:10:59 PST

Late breaking updates from Capitol on twitter @RepPatterson

UPDATE, Fri. Mar 12: GOP votes to push Arizona further down the wrong track

STATE CAPITOL, PHOENIX -- Jan Brewer and her fellow Republicans are working behind closed doors away from the public to produce their own partisan and phony budget that only pushes Arizona farther down the wrong track.

After failing to even begin work on the budget after declaring last week “budget week” and after a year of unsuccessful attempts to solve the budget, Republicans will try again this week in a special session with their wrong-track and phony budget plans.

“It sounds a little bit too familiar — it’s the same failed leadership and the same failed budget process,” House Democratic Leader David Lujan. For example, Republicans want to take health care away from 417,000 people, something voters already approved in Proposition 204.

“Voter-passed initiatives like these are protected by the state constitution, and cutting hundreds of thousands of people from health care will only trigger a lawsuit, award health care back to Arizonans and ultimately will save the state nothing,” said House Democratic Whip Chad Campbell. “This is just another phony attempt at cutting more from the budget, when in reality it will yield no results and only take away health care from kids, seniors and adults.”

Arizonans can see the same failed leadership in the way Republicans are handling the budget.

“All last year and this year, Republicans lied to the public, telling them that they would act in a transparent way in dealing with the budget,” House Democratic Policy Leader Steve Farley said. “Instead, they continue to craft a budget behind closed doors and are deciding the fate Arizona’s schoolchildren, their teachers and thousands of jobs. It’s time for a change.”

Lujan said. “Once again, Republicans failed to do what they said they were going to do — work on the budget. Meanwhile, Arizona is still on the wrong track.”

- adapted from House Dems PIO