Below is a summary of the present situation with our state's budget as provided by the Arizona GOP in a recent email...
The Arizona Legislature’s approved budget plan protects children, promotes families and offers compassion without jeopardizing our children’s financial future. However, the Governor’s proposal mortgages our future by forcing today’s children to pay for her short-sighted excesses. On Monday Governor Napolitano only took 15 minutes to veto a good budget sent to her by our hard working Republican Legislators at the state Capitol. Don’t let Napolitano play games with the future of our state. Republican Legislators have crafted a fiscally responsible budget that invests in our state’s future while protecting Arizona’s Children.
The Legislature’s Sensible Budget
vs.
The Governor’s Tax-and-Spend Plan
Tax Policy
The people’s Legislature recognizes the state’s money comes from hard-working Arizonans who deserve to keep as much of their paycheck as possible while still funding vital services.
The Legislature’s Sensible Budget
The Legislature eliminates the marriage penalty when giving to student tuition organizations, conforms the state’s code to the IRS, which allows Arizonans to write off tsunami-related donations on their 2004 tax returns and reduces the inequity businesses face on property tax without shifting the burden to homeowners. The governor nullifies these and other features of a massive tax relief package with her hasty blanket veto.
The Governor’s Plan
The governor increases taxes by vetoing the IRS conformity bill. With that veto, Arizonans will be paying higher state taxes. She calls for targeted and largely cosmetic business tax cuts that do not provide overall relief for a wide range of families and businesses.
Welfare Reform
Arizona taxpayers spend billions of dollars to provide aid for the poor, including day care subsidies for working parents, health care for the poor and cash assistance. We continue and in fact expand our health care programs but put in place sensible reforms.
The Legislature’s Sensible Budget
The Legislature recognizes the need to give a hand up to some of our citizens. By adding sensible reforms, we ensure welfare does not become a lifestyle. For instance, we implement a cap of five children per family for the day care subsidy and a five-year family limit. The governor nullifies these and other meaningful reforms with her hasty blanket veto.
The Governor’s Plan
The Governor increases the welfare rolls even when there is no need. Her increased spending eliminates a waiting list for the day care subsidy program despite the fact no such list exists. The Governor asks for an additional $28 million for new CPS caseworkers despite gross failures and wasteful spending. Two years of increased funding this woefully managed executive agency has produced no improvements for the protection of children. However, the agency has continued full pay and reassignment to desk duty for convicted felons who could not obtain clearance to work directly with children.
Education
Nothing is more important than the good education of our children. The Legislature makes it our top priority.
The Legislature’s Sensible Budget
The Legislature adds $175 million to K-12 education, including substantial dollars intended to go directly to retain our experienced teachers. The Legislature also adds $70 million for normal building maintenance to ensure our new schools remain in use for a new generation of Arizona schoolchildren. The Legislature invests $25 million more into K-12 education than proposed by the governor. The governor nullifies these and other important education improvements with her hasty blanket veto.
The Governor’s Plan
The Governor asks for less money for our schoolchildren. She denies teachers a pay raise and adds new money for her pet project, full-day kindergarten. The governor’s substantially duplicative program comes despite the fact that many school districts tax their property owners or use federal dollars to implement the full-day kindergarten.
Fiscal Responsibility
For the last several years, we have had to borrow and use smoke and mirrors to balance our books. We put a halt to those practices. We will not mortgage our children’s future.
The Legislature’s Sensible Budget
The Legislature ends the vicious and costly cycle of borrowing to pay for new schools. Building new schools for our children has become an annual expense, much like any operating expense. And government should avoid borrowing to cover day-to-day costs. By paying cash, the state saves an immediate $45 million. The Legislature also pays cash to settle a taxpayer lawsuit. The Legislature does not rely on gimmicks or smoke and mirrors to give Arizonans a balanced budget. The governor nullifies these and other fiscally prudent measures with her hasty blanket veto.
The Governor’s Plan
The Governor wants to sell a state building to settle the taxpayer lawsuit while also borrowing $300 million to pay for new schools. Her plan creates the specter of a tax increase to cover the mounting debt and expansion of welfare in our state. She fails to find efficiency savings promised in her 2002 campaign that would eliminate the need for school construction borrowing.
