First Things First doesn’t fit in today’s economy

East Valley Tribune
September 18, 2010
Tom Patterson, guest commentary

Arizona voters will have the opportunity to make a common-sense move toward bringing our state’s fiscal house back in order this November. Prop. 302 would wind down First Things First (FTF), the poorly conceived social services program passed by voters four years ago, and instead use the money to avoid further cuts to public education, indigent health care and public safety. It’s a no-brainer.

In 2006, advocates for FTF dreamed of having their own privately operated, publicly funded agency for preschool children. They cleverly sold a plan imposing another 80 cents per pack tax on the despised cigarette smokers, promising to use the money for family literacy problems, abuse prevention and the like. Understandably, it passed.

It must have seemed like a dream come true. As hundreds of millions rolled in, two floors of office space were rented, 125 employees were hired and 31 regional councils were established. Yet somehow this gigantic money distributing bureaucracy didn’t make many grants. By January 2010, the program had accumulated $325 million in unspent funds, more than two-thirds of the money collected.

Of the grants FTF did manage to make, 50 percent went to three large non-profits, forming another strainer through which money must pass before reaching an actual service provider. Worse, only 30 percent of the grants awarded had gone through the normal competitive process. Yet FTF was able to come up with $500,000 to run a self-promoting TV commercial and another $143,000 to produce the spot, according to news reports and the Arizona Tax Research Association.

Normally, this level of irresponsibility when spending taxpayer money would catch the attention of an oversight entity. It’s regrettable that voters won’t have the benefit of a recent audit as they head to the polls. Clearly, any state agency would be faced with severe criticism and budget reductions for similar misbehavior.

Meanwhile, state government continues to struggle financially. Since FTF was created, the state has made permanent spending reductions of $2 billion from the general fund. Sure, some of that was fluff from the high-spending Napolitano years, but revenues are still falling while the need for services is not.

Even with the new revenue from the sales tax approved by the voters in May, the state will have to find another $550 million to balance next year’s budget. Sitting on a pile of unspent cash, FTF offered to loan some of their excess fund balance to help tide the state over. But legislators sensibly concluded that adding more general fund debt would simply force fiscal shortfalls into the future, so the offer was declined. Now lawmakers are asking voters to decide if the money being spent on FTF couldn’t be put to better use.

Faced with a potential funding loss of this magnitude, FTF is fighting back hard. A million dollar campaign opposing Prop. 302 is in the works. APS customers may be interested to know that their utility company ponied up $50,000 out of ratepayers’ bills to fund this particular special interest.

Despite its reasonable approach, there is little organized support for Prop 302. So you’ll see only ads arguing for “children, not politics”. This wrongly assumes that the cuts to education and medical care that will ensue if Prop. 302 fails won’t affect children. You’ll also be told that legislators are attempting to “steal” FTF’s money. But FTF doesn’t own the money, it’s public money and voters have every right to direct it as they see fit.

Rep. Chad Campbell preposterously complained that by proposing to drop FTF, “we’re putting a big ‘closed for business’ sign on the state of Arizona.” Huh?

My personal favorite is Maricopa County Public Health Director Bob England who argued FTF is essential because “those kids grow up and have 80 percent fewer encounters with the juvenile justice system. So that’s 80 percent less need for courts, for juvenile detention …” It’s falling down hilarious to make that long term claim for a program that made its first grant less than a year ago.

FTF is impossible to defend. In today’s fiscal climate, an unaccountable, duplicative, self-referential program like FTF is out of touch with the times. Public funds should be used for leaner, more effective programs. We can do better and those who truly need help now deserve it.

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East Valley resident Tom Patterson (pattersontomc@cox.net) is a retired physician and former state senator.