Small Town News

State budget not out of woods yet

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Although a state budget was passed on September 5, a number of bills were vetoed for later consideration and a budget deficit continues to loom.

Representative Pat Fleming of State Legislature District 25 said she is frustrated with the lack of leadership on the state budget.

"The governor and the majority in the legislature had eight months to pass a full, bipartisan budget but refused to work together and still didn't get the job done," she said. "Without a full budget, vital health services and public safety will remain in danger of losing their funding completely."

Fleming, a Democrat, pointed out that some programs have already lost funding. As an example she noted that Governor Jan Brewer eliminated health insurance for 10,000 working Arizona parents when she signed a bill eliminating KidsCare Parents, a health program for families. Fleming said this happened to these families just when they need health insurance the most, in these tough economic times.

The state Democratic party was puzzled, according to Fleming, by the Republican governor's apparent hesitancy to work together toward a bipartisan budget solution. She said a primary choice to be made in the budget was either giving tax breaks to big corporations or saving funding for education. The governor chose to save education, Fleming explained, which was the same priority the Democratic party had.

"Now, since our state still faces a budget deficit, we must work toward a real, bipartisan solution to a full budget," said Fleming. "As always, I stand ready to walk down that bipartisan path for a stronger Arizona."

District 25 Republican representative David Stevens agreed that the vetoing performed by Governor Brewer left the state budget unbalanced, referring to the fact it is required by law that the budget be balanced every year. He said the K-12 and Department of Economic Services bills were the primary ones vetoed. K-12 has to do with monthly payments the state makes to public and charter schools. Stevens noted that charter schools were recently paid, but not public schools. He said just about the entire DES package was vetoed.

"We had a working package and we hate to see it come back on us like this," said Stevens. "The tax cuts we proposed for business would have made Arizona the seventh most competitive in the nation for attracting business. Now we're somewhere below twentieth. What we need here is people with jobs, working and spending in the local economy; that's what will bring us out of this economic downturn. We need a work environment where business will want to come here."

Stevens said he feels the governor vetoed some bills to pave the way for bringing back her attempt at a March vote for a 1-cent on the dollar sales tax increase. He explained that a 1-cent increase doesn't sound like much, but adding 1% to the existing 6.1% sales tax equates to an additional 16.4% in tax.

Other concerns Stevens mentioned include decreased state income and higher state spending. He said all state income monies are below historic averages, primarily due to the glut of unsold houses in the state and the economy in general. He did say there are some promising signs, especially with housing, and he is hopeful property values will come back to equilibrium.

"At the same time, the state is spending everything they get, which will not help balance the budget," he said. "We are working on the budget now and we will bring our package back. We will send it back to the governor."



Copyright 2009 Ajo Copper News, Ajo, Arizona. All Rights Reserved. This content, including derivations, may not be stored or distributed in any manner, disseminated, published, broadcast, rewritten or reproduced without express, written consent from SmallTownPapers, Inc.

© 2009 Ajo Copper News Ajo, Arizona. All Rights Reserved. This content, including derivations, may not be stored or distributed in any manner, disseminated, published, broadcast, rewritten or reproduced without express, written consent from DAS.

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