Rep. Konopnicki's article was published this morning in the 'Arizona Republic'
CLICK HERE TO READ
This is NOT a balanced budget. The Governor is correct that the short fall will be $4 billion and the legislative budget is $900 million short for the $3 billion short fall the House/Senate budget projected. In effect, we do not cover the $3 billion we project as the short fall.
Most important point is that the Legislative budget has NO CASH FLOW. We have used all the money in games and rollover. July 15 the state has payments of $ 2 billion dollars (schools, ACCCS and Universities) and NO cash to make the payments. The state has already rolled over the payments to schools for two months so the payments have to be made. We will have to go to the market to borrow the funds.
It is important to note that Arizona banks received TARP funds so banks are NOT lending money in Arizona. The State has been informed that our credit rating will drop and that we will now be a high risk loan. That means we will be paying very high interest and will have a very difficult time getting a loan. It also means the State of Arizona will be now be competing for funds that businesses
and individuals may want to borrow in a very tight money market.
One example is the prison borrowing as proposed in the budget. The state would receive $450 million sometime this year and then will make monthly payments of $50 million a year for the next twenty years.
NOT A GOOD DEAL FOR ANYONE! No one would run their business or personal life in this manner. It is NOT a Republican way to use money!
Rural Hospitals lose a major portion of their funding and some may have to close.
ALL the community health centers will have to close.
The rural community colleges take two hits on the budget. EAC will be OK but NPC and Gila take hits that they will have a difficult time over coming.
The universities take a hit as this bill as written with the cuts, the double roll over, and the sweeps (which are illegal) moves them below the MOE requirement and will not quality for the federal stimulus money. A huge loss to the state.
We may not like the stimulus money, but we in Arizona will pay our share of the cost in federal taxes whether we use the money or not.
Both cities and counties have funds taken from them, and they will HAVE to increase taxes to recover (which are again, illegal).
Two of LD 5 counties take a double cut because they lose the prop 204 money (an agreement with the state several years ago) and have no way to make up the difference. Again, a tax increase is possible.
The budget also hurts INDIVIDUALS WITH DEVELOPMENTAL
DISABILITIES. It takes away vital services and leaves them without any help. Many may have to be placed in group homes at an even greater cost. It hurts seniors as well taking away wheel chairs and diapers, etc. and again many who are now able to live at home will have to be moved to nursing homes.
It is wasting precious time to pass a budget that a GOP governor will veto and going into debt (delaying payments, etc.) is not sound, conservative fiscal policy.
Those losses will shock the state when we make the cuts necessary to balance our budget without the stimulus. Hospital, community health centers, community colleges, cities and counties all take huge hits, BUT RURAL AREAS take even bigger hits.
Thanks for your help!
Bill Konopnicki
Bill Konopnicki is the State Representative for LD-5. Bill has been a successful small businessman for the past 30 years. He owns and operates: McDonald's restaurants with his oldest son, radio stations, and currently is CEO of WSK Management Systems. He is involved in community affairs and has worked with community groups, including the Boy Scouts, Ronald McDonald Houses and The Boys and Girls Clubs. He has also served as a member of the Mount Graham Regional Medical Center's Operating Board and is a past president.
7 comments:
Bill,
I think your comments are very appropriate. I admire your courage for all the “no” votes thr other day. It’s too bad that the House budget also neglected to go after the $100 million in finger print enhancement stimulus money. Those monies could have been supplanted to backfill cuts to other human services. Arizona is the only state in the union not to apply for these funds. The really sad thing: the $100 million came with NO state expenditures, just authorization to appropriate.
Mark
I appreciate the sentiments, but I suspect I'm a bit more fiscally conservative. As you said, the borrowing in a high-risk status makes little sense. So it seems to me we didn't cut enough.
We cannot keep pretending we have the same AZ with issues and revenue base. We either grow up, slash it all down and get realistic, or allow AZ to flounder beholden to the Federal Govt control.
DO NOT buy in to the rhetoric and the pain of cuts. Everyone hurts, and especially those misled into thinking that government aide was a permanent option. The largest problem we have across the country is that we see all aide as permanent support, enter the nanny state.
Liberal 101 is about this fact, and the belief that we are all victims awaiting help. My mom and dad helped me in college, but they are my parents and love me. Families help each other.
I cannot assume that is an option for the rest of my adult life! That's called irresponsible and being a SPONGE.
Enough Sponge Budgets dripping with social angst. I don't buy that, and none of AZ can anymore.Liberal Economic is killing the country's capitalism, and I for one, do not want to see AZ contribute to it all.
Gayle makes a good point about being realistic. But I also think that's what Bill is trying to point out--that the budget doesn't make sense with rollovers, borrowing, and other ploys that the GOP used to abhor.
What I love most about Gayle's comment is that far too often we look to government--be it local, state, or federal for a handout. Problem is, one you start giving somebody something they didn't earn, it's hard to break the cycle, welfare for individuals and corporations is a good example.
We SHOULD rely on our families, friends and churches first if we are in need of help.
Bottom line? Now is the perfect time to simplify the tax code by eliminating all tax credits. I think we really need to examine how we fund education and come up with a new model.
Those who work for government, be it police, fire, social workers, and the like, should stop whinnning about not having this or that. The level of service the state provided prior to this recession was far too much and not worth the cost.
The question is are we all willing to do our part to ensure this doesn't happen again?
It seems to me this legislature is doing the same things they criticized our Democrat Governor of wanting to do in past years – borrowing, rollovers - encumbering our children, grandchildren and great-grandchildren. We all need to “bite the bullet” and do the hard things that are necessary in these tough times. As much as we Republicans hate taxes, get it done, support our “Republican Governor” and then go on to REALLY fix our problems by doing:
• tax reform, diversifying our economy (years behind on solar yet we are the “Sunshine State”!),
• true long-term budgeting forecasts (no more “pie in the sky”!),
• change the Initiative process so that out of state money is no longer allowed (it takes a lot of CITIZEN motivation and time to collect signatures and money and only CITIZENS can change it!) By taking out of state money out of the process, we have citizens of Arizona changing our Constitution – not “moneybags”!
• A temporary tax increase – I know! I know! Government is never “temporary”. But it is up to the CITIZENS to make it so. After all, that is supposed to be the purpose of our “citizen legislature”!
Bev
I find it disingenuous when critics accuse the current legislature of using the same rollover "gimmicks" that Nappy did.
Nappy employed these gimmicks to avoid making any cuts, when the handwriting was on the wall that the revenues would not sustain the current level of spending. If she had engaged in spending cuts in the beginning (2007), then we would not be in our current predicament.
Instead, after having succeeded in an "end around" political maneuver with a few turn-coat Republican legislators in 2008, Nappy instructed each department to spend as much money as possible before the Legislature could pass new legislation cutting the budget.
The underlying false assumption of Rep. Konopnicki is that the tax increases will actually produce the revenue anticipated. History has shown that actual revenues collected fall far short of projections, which means the Legislature and Governor will find themselves in the same position next January.
Sooner or later, you have to pay the piper. Arizonans deserve to hear the truth and must accept the consequences of their electoral choices.
Moral of the story is "Don't spend what you don't have!"
Would Rep. K be as interested in a Fast-Food tax to fix the budget?
Hmmmmm?
Generally I agree with those who have said that we have had too much spending, but let's be honest too-- in the past we've sometimes cut taxes too much and too fast, especially given that the 1992 referendum essentially means that it is impossible to raise them back again in an emergency.
I think we should have balanced the budget without any gimmicks in years passed, filled up the rainy day fund (which we would then be able to draw on right now during the recession, instead of it being sucked dry last year when we really didn't need it yet) and only then cut taxes.
Post a Comment