May 21, 2009
Dear AZ Taxpayer,
Here are four quick news items from AFP Arizona:
1) Government-run health care will be a pain in the, uh, colon…
For a colonoscopic preview of bureaucratic decision-making under government-run health care, check out this column from the online edition of the Wall Street Journal:http://online.wsj.com/article/SB124268737705832167.html
If you want to reform America’s health care system without letting government bureaucrats get between you and life-saving procedures and therapies, please visit this website: www.PatientsUnitedNow.com (a project of AFP Foundation)
If you have a personal testimony about how health care freedom has improved (or saved) your life, or if you have personally experienced the deprivations of government-run health care in another country, please send your story to infoAZ@afphq.org.
If you’re in Tucson next Tuesday (May 26), Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords will be holding a Town Hall Meeting to discuss health care , from 6:00 - 8:00 p.m. at Sahuaro High School Auditorium, 545 N. Camino Seco. Rep. Giffords is asking for people to RSVP to (520) 881-3588. AFP Arizona encourages citizens to show up and tell Giffords that they do NOT want government bureaucrats denying or delaying life-saving medical services.
2) Update on Arizona’s FY2010 Budget
The Arizona House and Senate are getting closer to agreeing on a budget plan for Fiscal Year 2010, which begins July 1. The budget plans are not pretty , but they would avoid making the huge mistake of raising state sales and property taxes during a recession. As we explain at our Taxpayer Town Halls, one of the reasons the current budget plans rely on too many gimmicks because the governor and most legislators do not have the political courage to go after the massive waste in the K-12 education system . That system, which wastes literally billions of dollars annually, will lose less than three percent of its funding in Fiscal Year 2010. Makes you wonder why so many teachers, union activists, and misinformed parents are so agitated…
Of course, keen observers have noticed that Arizona’s FY2010 structural deficit is really more like $3.3 billion, while the current budget plans add up to about $2.7 billion. The good news is that Arizona’s school districts may still have as much as $800 million in unencumbered fund balances on July 1 (the first day of FY2010). Those are funds they are not legally allowed to spend in FY2009. If so, that’s another $800 million the state will not need to spend on K-12 next year. For close to $4 billion in deficit-reducing options that are still available, see Page 2 of this flyer:http://www.americansforprosperity.org/files/breweractionalert5-21-9.pdf
Link to the Taxpayer Town Hall schedule:
http://www.americansforprosperity.org/files/azeventslist5-19-9.pdf
And be sure to look into the Leadership Institute’s Candidate School , which will be taking place Saturday, May 30 in Scottsdale, from 10 am to 5:30 pm. They have great information for grassroots citizen activists who want to make a difference. Here is the info and registration link:http://www.leadershipinstitute.org/Training/School.cfm?SchoolID=15002
3) Special session to preserve opportunities for special-needs kids
Kudos to Gov. Jan Brewer for calling a special legislative session to provide tax credit scholarships to keep special-needs and foster kids from having to return to government schools, now that the Arizona Supreme Court has ruled against the voucher program that helped those kids get into private schools. Here is a news story about the special session: http://www.eastvalleytribune.com/story/139464
Contrary to the suggestion by reporter Howie Fischer, there may not be any “net loss to the treasury.” If these students are forced to return to district schools, each will cost the state government at least $4,700 per year (and cost local and federal taxpayers another $4,000 per year). If the average tax-credit scholarship falls below $4,700, there will actually be a net gain to the state treasury.
Although AFP Arizona supports the special session, we are also very supportive of the strategy adopted by Senate President Bob Burns , which prevents (almost) all legislation from moving in the Senate until the FY 2010 budget is passed. The primary responsibility of the Legislature (after doing its part to protect our individual rights) is to pass a budget to fund state government. In past years, the budget process was sometimes held hostage by holdout legislators who demanded action on their pet bills. This year, Sen. Burns has reversed the normal process: nobody gets any of their pet bills passed unless they cooperate on a budget.
4) Avoiding the mistakes of our neighbor to the west
The Arizona Free Enterprise Club has a great post today at the Goldwater Institute Daily, about the failure of a tax-hike referendum in California. Steve Voeller writes, “I hope lawmakers and the governor have a new appreciation for just how irritable taxpayers are right now. We elect our leaders to make tough decisions, not punt them to us.” We had hoped that the Governor would have gotten that message on April 15, when 20,000 irate taxpayers held Tea Parties at locations around the state…
More: http://www.goldwaterinstitute.org/AboutUs/ArticleView.aspx?id=2667
And have a blessed Memorial Day—they died for our freedom!
For Liberty,
--Tom
Tom Jenney
Arizona DirectorAmericans for Prosperity(Arizona Federation of Taxpayers)
www.aztaxpayers.org
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