Budget to Pass Senate Today ? Your Questions Answered! Monday, August 10
Our legislature has reportedly regrouped this weekend after not being able to find enough votes on Friday to push the current budget proposal past the Senate floor. Media sources are now reporting that the Senate leadership will reconvene today at 1:00pm with a new approach to try to appease “anti-tax” legislators…please see the Q&A below for full details.
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We would be remiss, however, if we didn’t start by encouraging those of you who have not contacted their Senator or Governor Brewer to do so today! Contact information for key legislators can be found via this link.
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Your latest budget questions:
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1. What changes are expected to be made to the budget today? In order to appease the members who dislike the sales tax option, legislative leadership is expected to separate the option to send a temporary sales tax increase to the ballot from the rest of the tax portion of the budget proposal. Currently the temporary tax increase is lumped in with the repeal of the state equalization tax (-$250 million for education), the individual income tax reductions (approx. -$200 million/year) and the corporate income tax reductions (approx. -$200 million/year).
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2. I heard that some guy named Grover “authorized” Arizona legislators to finally vote for the sales tax? Are we talking about the furry blue monster from Sesame Street?.
This would almost be funny if it wasn’t true (the authorization from Grover, not the Sesame Street part).
Grover Norquist is the head of the Americans for Tax Reform, an anti-tax special interest group in Washington, DC. A rather disturbing number of our Arizona legislators signed Grover’s “no-tax” pledge when they were elected and have since felt beholden to him during the budget negotiations.
On Saturday, Grover reportedly gave his blessing to send the sales tax increase to the voters of Arizona, saying that he “will not consider the move a violation of their pledge,” though his blessing “is conditional on future tax cuts remaining in the budget package.”
Seriously. We are not making this up. See this link for the full story.
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3. If both bills pass, will our sales tax increase?
That’s the thing…the temporary sales tax increase is only a proposal to send the option to the ballot in November. In other words, our elected representatives are actually haggling over whether or not they trust Arizona citizens to “vote the right way.”
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4. Are there any Senators who are not supporting this bill for reasons beyond some special interest pledge?
Yes. The minority party had reportedly negotiated an alternative budget with a bi-partisan committee before the legislative leadership put the current budget offering on the table. Needless to say, they are all voting no on the budget before them today.
There are majority members who have been vocal on their opposition to this budget as well. Senator Carolyn Allen (Scottsdale) stated last week that there was “no way she can vote for a bill that reduces taxes when the legislature is making deep cuts to education.”
Senator Bill Konopnicki (Safford) asked via Twitter: “Who is running AZ – outside groups or the Legislature? Too many people without any accountability are telling (the) legislature how to vote.” Senators Barbara Leff (Paradise Valley), Linda Gray (Phoenix) and Jay Tibshraeny (Chandler) are also reportedly hesitant to vote for a budget that relies solely on cuts to state services without addressing our shrinking revenue. You can find the contact info for these members at the end of this email if you would like to contact them to encourage their continued support for our schools..
5. Haven’t we already passed the due date for ballot measures to be placed on the November ballot? Yes. Our legislature extended the deadline until August 10th (today) when they couldn’t find enough votes to pass the budget last week.
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6. Is the fact that they are separating the sales tax issue from the rest of the taxation bill good for education? No. There isn’t much in this budget proposal that is good for education, short of the fact that they aren’t going so far as to shut down our schools this year.
It is worth reiterating that this budget proposal is almost identical to the budget that was sent to Governor Brewer on June 30th. She vetoed the education portion of the bill then, and went so far as to call the budget “fatally flawed” – with cuts that would “decimate” education and human services. We are very unclear as to why she supports this budget today.
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7. If this budget is passed and signed by Governor Brewer, what changes will we expect to see in our schools this year?
While this is a question that is far too complex to answer in this email, in the immediate term you will see some big changes in district budgets.
School districts were required by law to have a budget in place this summer for the upcoming school year. The legislature passed a ‘temporary’ budget in July and essentially told the districts that their expenditures would be capped at 2009 levels.
This budget contains millions of dollars of cuts beyond the 2009 levels. Districts will have to re-tool their budgets once again to reflect the reduction in payments…which will translate, of course, in their ability to maintain school services and buildings at current levels. If that isn’t bad enough news, what’s worse is the fact that this budget doesn’t come close to closing our fiscal deficit, so we can also expect further cuts in the middle of the year (see Question 9 below).
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8. I read somewhere that the legislature is shorting the districts for payments from LAST school year (2008-2009). Is that true?
Yes -as we reported earlier, the legislature is also declining to pay $300 million that was allocated to the districts for the last school year. During the House Appropriations debate, Rep. David Schapira (LD17) asked if the state would be required to pay back these funds…and was told that another special session would have to authorize the repayment of this money due to districts.
Rep. Schapira then pointed out that this money was part of school districts’ FY2008-09 budget that was allocated by the legislature. When the money was ‘rolled over,’ many districts then had to borrow money to cover year-end bills–with the assumption being made by both the districts and their creditors that the state was going to repay the funds as promised this fiscal year.
A decision not to repay these funds will not only be detrimental to the school districts (and to the ability of the legislature to sell the roll-over payments to voters again), but it can also adversely impact school district bond ratings. If bond ratings go down, creditors require districts to carry larger cash balances…and larger cash balance requirements equate to higher property taxes for all of us – without any added benefit for our schools or communities.
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9. Great. Well…if they pass this budget, will our budget deficit be “fixed”?
This is perhaps the worst news of all. During the budget debates, legislators asked a non-partisan member of the Joint Legislative Budget Committee (JLBC) how the budget will look after the tax and spending cuts in this bill are in place. His answer: it will not address our entire structural deficit and it will leave Arizona with an unresolved $2-$2.5 BILLION dollar deficit in 2009-2010.
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Our Brief Editorial:
Our children – and the citizens of our state – deserve better than this.
Please continue letting your legislators and Governor Brewer know that this current budget is unacceptable. Other viable alternatives have been presented that would lessen the impact to the schools in our state AND fully address the entire budget deficit.
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Find out more:
Split tax plan: solution or sucker’s bet? (Mary K. Reinhart), Arizona Guardian, August 10, 2009
Tax pledge influenced legislators on budget (Mary Jo Pitzl), Arizona Republic, August 10, 2009
Opinion: Voters should decide what state legislators won’t (Michael O’Neil), Arizona Republic, August 9, 2009
‘’No-tax” leader OK with hike on ballot pledge by AZ GOP reversed (Howard Fischer), Arizona Daily Star, August 8, 2009
New Twist to budget plan (Matthew Benson), Arizona Republic, August 8, 2009
Journalists Roundtable, (Ted Simons) Horizon (video), Mary K. Reinhart/Arizona Guardian, Casey Newton/Arizona Republic, and Dan Nowicki /Arizona Republic discuss the legislative situation, August 7, 2009.
Regents go back to old plan, will set tuition in the spring, Arizona Daily Star, August 7, 2009
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NATIONAL COVERAGE of ARIZONA LEGISLATIVE SESSION:
In Arizona, Republicans Rule all but themselves ~ Jennifer Steinhauer, NY Times 8/8/2009
The Next Money Pits (Jeremy Herb), Newsweek August 1, 2009
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Other relevant links (see comment string below):
Joint Democratic 2010 FY Budget Plan: Spending Changes by Agency (May 2009)
Fiscal Alternatives Choices Team (FACT) Report (April 2, 2009)
Tough Choices or Tough Times, the New Commission on the Skills of the American Workforce
Tax Law Changes in Arizona Since 1989 and the Impact on Government Revenues and Economic Growth (Dennis Hoffman and Tom Rex), Arizona State University Office of the University Economist, June 2008.
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Grover Norquist? – ! – ? Are you kidding me?? This fiasco keeps getting more ridiculous with every passing day. Do these legislators have a conscience? SHAME ON THEM!
It is beyond insulting that any of the legislative leadership would accept and bow to the founder of a Washington special interest group before listening the plea of their own constituents here in their home state. Arizonans are hurting. Arizonans are struggling. Arizonans need their legislators to stand up for them, rather than some pledge they’ve signed that has no consitutional value.
I’m fed up. And I’m not alone.
Hi AEN,
You wrote…
“The minority party had reportedly negotiated an alternative budget with a bi-partisan committee”
Do you have a link to or details on this minority party budget?
Does AEN have any direct suggestions on how to close the budget gap and support education at the same time?
Thanks!
AZ Ed Watch:
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Thanks for your comment! While this space is too limited to answer both your questions in detail, here’s the quick-response version in two parts
1. Although our volunteers have not had access to the budget documents from the last bi-partisan budget meetings, it is our understanding that the budget proposal was similar to the Democrat’s FY2010 budget outline from May. You can view this on-line via the link we just added above the comment section. Please keep in mind that we are NOT endorsing this plan (especially given that we have not seen a comprehensive document) — we are merely pointing out that extensive work has already been done to formulate a budget that offers specific suggestions for alleviating the fiscal impact to our schools AND to address the entirety of our current $3 billion + budget deficit.
2. We have also paid close attention to documents such as the FACT report (which was released by Arizona’s university economists at the request of Senate President Robert Burns earlier this year); tax studies such as “Tax Law Changes in Arizona Since 1989 and the Impact on Government Revenues and Economic Growth” (etc.) and budgetary and policy recommendations from an array of resources including multi-state studies and items related to the “Race to the Top” program (Tough Choices, Tough Times, etc.). While we have not viewed a single document which provides the magic elixir to Arizona’s budget challenges, all of the above documents are relevant to our current situation and can serve to inform a more responsible, comprehensive and fiscally responsible budget than the one that is on the table today. I have added links to these documents in the main text above and you can find further information in our “Act Now” section on this website (under “Learn More About Possible Solutions”).
Part II: As for your question regarding our direct suggestion on how to close the budget gap while supporting our schools– Yes, our central team of parents and education advocates is definitely working on a core list of goals that we believe our state can accomplish. It is important to note, however, that while we all stand together with the conviction that our state’s future economy is inextricably tied to the success or failure of our schools, our AEN members come in a variety of political stripes. Although I cannot speak to the specific viewpoints of ALL our members, I can state definitively that:
– We all believe that the Arizona Constitution matters. Article 11, Section 10 states in part that our legislature “shall make such appropriations” as to provide for the “development and improvement” of our public schools. It does not say that we should ‘marginally support’ our schools or ‘pay for the education of our state citizens only when we can afford it’. Our first suggestion, therefore, is that our elected officials pay attention to their oath to uphold our Constitution. That may sound overly simplistic, but is our assessment that many legislators have lost sight of the basic foundation of their office.
– It is clear that tax structure in Arizona is in need of reform. The current budget proposal, however, is severely imbalanced and relies far too much on a single-sided approach to resolving our fiscal crisis. The structural tax issues in our state are more complicated to address, but that is what our legislators should have been working on this year instead of the current package of ideologically-appealing, lobbyist-pleasing budget items that fail to address the reality of our current situation (and fail miserably to support the ‘development and improvement’ of our public K-12 schools and universities). It’s time now to set that approach aside and start using relevant facts and statistics so we can extricate ourselves from this budget crisis.
– As debilitating as our budget crisis in now, the political gamesmanship in Phoenix has reached a point where it truly crippling our state. It is unproductive and the extreme partisan nature of our current legislature effectively means that millions of Arizona citizens have been effectively left without a voice in the budget process. We have watched with great dismay this year as legislative “leadership” has worked actively to exclude not only the ‘minority’ members, but other members of the majority party who have not fallen directly in line with the ideology of the moment.
Real, transformative leadership requires a level of credibility, commitment and the ability to critically examine complex issues. It is time for everyone in our government to pause, brush the sandbox off their pants, and start working together with a sense of urgency. No more 3am bills being passed without review. Time to stop passing blame.
We certainly welcome all input from the community on this matter. It is important to stress that ALL of our AEN website contributors are volunteers who are committed to working on this issue in addition to their normal workweek obligations. We jokingly say that we really put the ‘NON’ in non-profit since we are operating without funding or a research staff. We do aim, however, to be a “Do-Tank” instead of a mere “Think-tank” or loose collection of voters. Our membership is already large and is growing rapidly as people look to mobilize to improve our schools. If you haven’t done so already, we welcome you to join us to work towards a viable solution. (And yes, you can expect a more specific budget suggestions in the future!)
If I failed to answer your question to your satisfaction, please contact me via lisa@arizonaeducationnetwork.com. Many thanks!
Wow Admin/Lisa. Thank you for your comprehensive answer to the question Az Ed Watch asked. I can see you all are very informed and I applaud your passion. Thank you for all that you guys are doing, and keep up the good–no great, work!
I’m retired now and living in Marana (North Tucson area). I found this website while looking for information on our budget. I appreciate the work that is being done here – it is so hard to find solid, honest information.
I voted for Senator Al Melvin during the last election and he has really let me down. The last townhall he had he kept talking about education like it was obstacle that we needed to avoid in our state. I couldn’t believe it. Education is everything in our country and we are all lost without it. Seniors need to support the education of children as much as anyone since that generation will be charged with supporting us. Mr. Melvin will not have support next time.