Arizona faces a huge budget
deficit and the Tribune appropriately editorialized on both the
Governor and Legislature’s initial response to the crisis. In the case
of the Governor, the Tribune characterized a budget that
increases spending over $600 million and finances that increased
spending primarily through debt financing as "fairly
conservative." The Legislative budget that attempts to keep
spending at this year’s level with much less debt financing was
hammered as "putrid." To cap off the inconsistency, the Tribune’s
push for higher spending was followed by a call for the passage of a
"Taxpayer’s Bill of Rights" to limit future state spending.
Make no mistake, the state’s budget
crisis is severe and will not be resolved without real leadership from
state policymakers. Deluding Arizonans into believing that the problem
can be solved without making tough choices will only exacerbate our
problems.
It has become standard practice for
politicians on the campaign trail to support higher government spending
and oppose raising taxes. More often than not, that campaign rhetoric
collides with the realities of the economic cycle and that is not
necessarily a bad thing.
Growing government is considerably easier
than cutting it. Downturns in the economy, followed by declines in the
growth rates of tax revenue, are the only times government programs are
scrutinized and spending re-prioritized.
Seventy-eight percent of Arizona’s
state general fund budget is directed to education, low-income health
programs, and prisons. While the Tribune rips the Legislature for
including all the budgets in the overall resolution to the crisis, the
simple truth is the huge deficit cannot be balanced responsibly by
focusing all the reductions on twenty-eight percent of the budget.
The math is simple. After taking
education, health care and prison spending "off the table",
there is $1.3 billion left in the current Fiscal Year (FY) 2003 budget.
The FY 2004 deficit is estimated as high as $1.5 billion.
Excluding education, health and welfare,
and prisons simply because they are high priorities ignores the fact
that each of these areas could be made more efficient and effective.
For example, Arizona, despite having one
of the fastest growing student populations in the United States, double
and sometimes triple counts the same student in the system. The
Legislature has been aware of the problem for years but opposition from
the education lobby has stopped any fix.
The sad truth is that it takes a budget
crisis to fix glaring flaws in government funding programs. To her
credit, Governor Napolitano called for the end of one such funding
redundancy in her budget.
Arizona’s attempt to address the budget
deficit is complicated by the fact that some of the spending is
"voter protected." The Prop 301 sales tax revenue earmarked
for K-12 schools, as well as the tobacco tax and tobacco settlement
monies earmarked for health care clearly have to be maintained.
However, in an effort to protect budgets,
as well as shift responsibility for the problem to the voters, some
state policymakers have adopted an expanded interpretation of programs
that are voter protected. Resolving this budget crisis will be difficult
enough without creating artificial barriers to the flexibility that is
needed to resolve the problem.
The top responsibility of lawmakers is to
adopt a balanced state budget. As tough as that job is this year, they
should embrace it and not shift the problem to the future. There are no
other responsible options. Funding increased state spending with a
credit card may make for good politics now but it is recipe for fiscal
disaster later.
