Arizonans Unhappy With Lawmakers on Budget
State lawmakers haven't been able to balance the state budget, and voters have taken notice.
Read more about last week's Rasmussen poll.
POSTED: July 28, 2009
State lawmakers haven't been able to balance the state budget, and voters have taken notice.
Read more about last week's Rasmussen poll.
POSTED: July 28, 2009
For months, the AEC has repeatedly urged Gov. Jan Brewer and the state legislature to restore cuts to the state Department of Revenue. Three hundred Revenue Department employees were terminated by Brewer in January. The move, which saved only $9 million, actually cost the state $174 million in lost revenue.
Today’s Arizona Republic editorial makes the same point: “The midyear fix for the 2009 budget reduced Department of Revenue staff so much that it hurt tax collections.”
Arizona is owed hundreds of millions of dollars in uncollected taxes. Enhancing the state Revenue Department could raise more than half a billion dollars in revenue – without raising taxes – in just a few years.
POSTED: July 21, 2009
The State Capitol is quiet these days as Gov. Jan Brewer and state legislators continue to be unable to reach a budget deal. That could be by design. Legislative leaders are opposed to the governor's proposal to raise taxes, and Speaker Kirk Adams may be willing to wait so long to make a budget deal to make a November 2009 special election nearly impossible.
Adams is publicly teeing up the idea that it may be too late. Howie Fischer reports:
House Speaker Kirk Adams said Monday there may not be enough time remaining to put a proposed tax hike on the November ballot.
Adams, a Mesa Republican, said he has been unable to cobble together the necessary votes in his own party to send the question of higher sales taxes to voters. And so far the Democrats who control 27 of the 60 seats have been unwilling to support the plan — at least in this fashion.
POSTED: July 21, 2009
State lawmakers have largely ignored rising unemployment. They have not crafted a plan to lead the state to economic recovery. Arizonans are paying the price, and according to The Arizona Republic, “you have to go back years, even decades, to find economic data that compares with the dismal numbers of today.” The paper continues:
Arizona's unemployment rate is the highest in 26 years. The percentage of job losses year over year is the worst since the end of World War II. Auto sales haven't been this weak since 1992, when the state's economy was only about one-third its current size.
In fact, the economy has been so out of whack that you can pretty much toss out numbers from 2005 through 2008. In terms of retail sales and the total number of non-farm jobs, we are roughly back to where we were in early 2004, before the boom-and-bust years began.
POSTED: July 19, 2009
Arizona’s unemployment rate continues to rise, but state leaders have failed to outline a plan to grow the state’s economy. Gov. Jan Brewer once promised Arizonans a “massive stimulus package,” but the plan was quickly dropped.
Howie Fischer of Capitol Media Services reports:
Arizona's unemployment rate shot up another half a point in June, with further job losses still to come.
New figures Thursday from the state Department of Commerce put the seasonally adjusted rate at 8.7 percent. That compares with 8.2 percent for May and 5.5 percent a year earlier….
Overall, the industry has shrank from its 2006 peak by about 100,000 jobs - half of that in the last year alone - to 141,600 in June.
Statewide, the number of people working in June was 49,400 less than May.
The Arizona Republic’s Betty Beard reports:
Arizona has lost about 308,100 of its total non-farm jobs, or 11.4 percent, since the recession began in December 2007, according to the state Commerce Department. Job losses in June were 7.6 percent higher than a year earlier.
Every job sector has lost jobs over the past year. In addition to construction, other sectors hit hard are natural resources and mining, down 20 percent, and professional and business services, down 12.5 percent.
Retail jobs are down 8.8 percent. Furniture and home-furnishing stores saw a 23 percent drop in employees, and clothing and accessory stores fell 15 percent.
Hospitals are 2.3 percent ahead of last year, but in general medical hiring is flat.
POSTED: July 17, 2009
Our new Internet ad highlights the hits Arizona’s kids will take as a result of Governor Jan Brewer and the Legislature’s deep cuts to education.
Unfortunately, Governor Brewer and the Legislature have taken a “cut schools first” approach to balance the budget. Protecting our schools is critical to building a strong foundation for Arizona’s economy.
Background for Dodgeball
Governor Brewer and the State Legislature cut $133 million from K-12 schools in a FY 2009 budget that was signed into law on Jan. 31. As a result of the cuts, 7,400 Arizona teachers have been told they may not have jobs next year. [Source: Capitol Media Services, Jan. 31, 2009; KPHO, April 27, 2009]
Governor Brewer said she would sign legislation to permanently repeal the education equalization tax, which could raise approximately $250 million for Arizona schools for FY 2010. One of the largest beneficiaries of repealing the measure would be a N.Y.-based insurance company. According to The Arizona Republic, "Calculations, based on Maricopa County property assessment records, show the biggest savings in 2006 went to the Phoenician resort and to New York-based Metropolitan Life Insurance Co. in 2007 and 2008. If the tax is repealed, MetLife also would receive the biggest savings, nearly $150,000, for the upcoming tax year." [Source: The Arizona Republic, April 4, 2009]
Governor Brewer made deep cuts to education after shrinking the state’s expected revenue. Her $9 million cut to the state’s Department of Revenue cost the state $174 million in lost revenue – more than $40 million higher than her FY 2009 cuts to K-12 schools. [Source: Garriott Testimony, March 10, 2009]
Instead of making deep cuts to schools, Governor Brewer could have increased revenue through the collection of unpaid taxes. Brewer Administration official Anthony Forschino, who serves as assistant director of the Department of Revenue, said that severe cuts to the agency as a result of the Jan. 31 budget hampered tax enforcement efforts. Of the $400 million in unpaid taxes owed to the state treasury, “businesses owe more than 60 percent of those taxes” and “451 businesses owe a total of $117 million.” [Source: The Arizona Republic, April 2, 2009]
POSTED: June 01, 2009