By Michael Bryan
Let's make this simple. The budget crisis proves that the Arizona GOP is unfit to govern. Here's why.
Arizona's GOP majority permanently cut taxes (mostly for the wealthy and corporations, and mostly without any minority party support) during a decade-long economic bubble based on the [...]
Posted by AzBlueMeanie:
The Tucson Weekly's Old Pueblo blog posted this piece UA Economist Marshall Vest: State Budget Crisis "Looks To Be Unsolvable":
UA economist Marshall Vest became the latest Cassandra to warn about the state government’s impending financial collapse.
Vest and fellow Eller School big-brain Gerald Swanson delivered their annual [...]
By Byron Schlomach, Ph.D.
Goldwater Institute
The last two state budgets have been hard on Arizona’s state parks. With a deficit in the billions, state funding to maintain the parks and run the department has been trimmed by 28 percent. In an effort to keep our wonderful parks maintained, [...]
Idiot's Guides have been big over the past few years. Goldwater Institute has created one for Republican legislators, a list it calls 100 Ideas for 100 Days: Budget Solutions and Ideas for State Elected Officials.
To be fair, nowhere does G.I. say Dems can't use it as well, [...]
Previous attempts to write and/or fix the budget during La Cervecera’s reign have “blown up” when she tried to tie spending cuts to new taxes. So, the idea went, why not break those up? Last week’s special session was to make cuts, revenues to be discussed at some future time, [...]
Posted by AzBlueMeanie:
Congressional Republicans love to cite reports from the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office (CBO) - except, of course, when the CBO report undermines the line of bullshit Republicans ae selling the American public, aided and abetted by a lazy stenographer news media who never fact check what Republicans are [...]
Here's another comment from the teacher in Tempe whose comment I moved to the front a few days ago. He spotlights one of the ironies good teachers understand. They complain, rightly, about budget cuts and unnecessary restrictions. But when the students walk in the classroom, all that goes' [...]
Arizona’s budget situation has become national news. The following article is excerpted from The Los Angeles Times:
Arizona struggles with budget crisis
The Legislature faces a nearly $2-billion deficit, which rises to $3 billion next year. It’s one of 35 states with ongoing budget problems, and experts say its plight is [...]
I received this comment on a post I wrote about some of the changes affecting teachers that were thrown in with the latest round of budget cuts.
I'm a teacher in the Tempe Union school district, and I now have my eye on the exit signs because of' [...]
So, which bleeding heart, fiscally irresponsible Democratic legislator said this?
…a fatally flawed legislative budget. The legislative budget ignores my consistently expressed goals and instead incorporates devastating cuts to education, public safety, and our state’s most vital health services for the frail. In particular, this package of bills is shortsighted, in [...]
Posted by AzBlueMeanie:
If you needed any further evidence that the Accidental Governor is a lame duck governor who is neither respected nor feared by her own Republican dominated legislature, Monday should have erased any doubt.
Governor Jan Brewer on July 1, 2009 in her veto message of the state budget:
I received [...]
The legislature just passed a whole bunch of changes affecting teachers, not just budget cuts. They were passed earlier but Brewer's budget vetoes eliminated them. Now they're back. And the teacher's union is suing.
First, a comment. If I'm a serious teacher planning to make it a career, [...]
The Senate has approved both SB 1001 and 1002. The vote went along party lines. All Republicans voted yes except Ron Gould and Carolyn Allen (who is not feeling well and was not present.)
Senate President Burns tried earlier to get a few Democrats to join him on the budget [...]
Well, it passed. Thayer Verschoor, who was so steadfastly against the budget bill that he didn’t show up, gave an apology to the Senate for all the trouble he caused and voted for the bill. One railbird texted me to tell me that he thought that Bob Burns used the [...]
There’s an article in The Arizona Capitol Times this morning about a pair of political committees will be employed to “corral votes” as the budget process moves forward.
One PAC the Arizona Capitol Times failed to mention was the Arizona Taxpayer’s Action Committee, an independent PAC associated with the former Arizona [...]
by David Safier
The Rs planned to cut $144 million in soft capital funding from district schools. The snafu Thursday only delayed the move.
But now some legislators are asking, Why aren't charter schools feeling the budget ax as well?
Here is among the lamest reasons imaginable for not making cuts to' [...]
Posted by AzBlueMeanie:
Republicans have controlled the Arizona House since 1967 -- 42 years. And with a few short-lived exceptions, Republicans have controlled the Arizona Senate during the same period of time. Arizona's governors, Republicans and Democrats alike, have been hostage to Republican legislators.
With this kind of iron-fisted control over' [...]
