Brewer/GOP unfair bad AZ budget looks dead today
Ultra-partisan Gov. Brewer is a big problem in the AZ budget deadlock.UPDATE: Follow RepPatterson on twitter. More Republican chaos in the legislature as Senate Majority Whip Pam Gorman (R-Anthem) just resigned her leadership position (read also EJ Montini on this). Senate GOP leader Chuck Gray (R-Mesa) has left the state on an ocean cruise vacation.
PHOENIX -- Right now it looks likely accidental Gov. Jan Brewer's (R-Glendale) one-sided Republican-only bad budget deal will not pass the Arizona Senate today. Neither 'bad plan Jan' nor Senate President Bob Burns (R-Peoria) seem able to bully enough votes for this clunker GOP deal.
The Brewer/Burns/Adams proposed Arizona GOP tax increase budget is not even balanced, and would harm our state's economy, schools and quality of life for many years.
I and other Arizona Democratic lawmakers, who represent millions of people statewide, remain ready and willing as we have all year to help craft a fair and reasonable smart budget people will support, but Brewer and GOP leadership in the legislature have been ultra-partisan in refusing to work with us.
The people of Arizona deserve better than the failed GOP (non)leadership from Brewer and legislative Republicans.
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Rarely would I link in a post on another blog to a post I wrote but it seems worth noting that right now 'likely voters' like Congress better than they like the Arizona legislature.
Let's not forget that the root of the problems with the lack of state revenues we have now began during the mid-1990's.
After the 1992 referendum made it effectively impossible for the legislature to raise taxes, they plunged forward with reckless abandon, passing the Symington tax cuts that are now costing the state $1.4 billion annually in lost revenue.
And the majority whip in the Senate in the mid-1990's who made passing those mammoth tax cuts possible? That's right, it was Jan Brewer.
If someone hasn't taken a moment to remind her that what we have now is the long term consequences of her actions fifteen years ago, maybe they should.