Any economist worth their salt (the Goldwater Institute springs to mind), will tell you ‘You can’t tax your way into prosperity.’ See its like this; trying to fix the leak in a boat by bailing buckets of water INTO THE BOAT. Can’t happen.

The problem with a *temporary* tax hike is the same as a drug addict getting a *temporary* meth fix. They’ll look for the next one and lie and tell you every reason in the world why it’ll be their last one!

Which reminds me of DES …

The Arizona government is addicted to spending. For starters I would fire the top 5 employees of DES starting with the Director for that stunt they pulled with the childcare scare.

This is so typical of governments addicted to spending: using ECONOMIC STIMULUS FUNDS to subsidize childcare for folks earning upwards of $39,000/year… and imagine the gall of DES to claim that IF these folks didn’t continue receiving that subsidy, they would quit their jobs and the state’s unemployment would increase!! Imagine the state using *economic stimulus* money to pay for babysitting services!!

I expect a load of you know what like that from Nancy Pelosi!

Hey, here’s an idea: Trim the salary and benefits of everyone in DES between senior supervisors and the lowest levels of senior management – you know, the soft middle belly of the beast? I’ll bet you can find $18 million in there … and what about the ancillary administrative expenses that attend those mid-managers? $18 million would be easy to find.

Why is is that the senior government employees always manage to find a way to use the customers of their services and the line employees against the Governor and Legislature to achieve their outrageous spending habits?

Tough times call for tough decisions. Calling for a tax increase (no, it will NOT be temporary, we already established that), and then using the voters as the scapegoat isn’t exactly true leadership quality is it?

I love Jan dearly, but someone is feeding her garbage for advice and unfortunately she’s trusting them. I suppose when the tax increase fails we’ll hear someone say: “The voters made me do it.”

Chuck, have you been that close to the fire for so long that you’ve begun to see it the way long term incumbents do and not as the voters see things? Right now everyone is reducing spending … how about Arizona too?

@3,@4
Governor Brewer is responsible for advocating an increase in the sales tax regardless of who cooked up the idea in the first place. This applies just as much to the state legislators. It matters not that “the voters” might pass a sales tax increase. The question is, who helped make such a sales tax increase possible?

@7
The only proven method by which to prevent temporary taxes from becoming permanent is to prevent their adoption in the first place. Do a search on Milton Friedman and income tax withholding to see just one fine example of how un-temporary temporary tax measures are.

@8
If Mr. Shofir is actually lying then you should be able to point that out. The fact that you don’t would lead me to believe that the gist of your real objection isn’t the inaccuracy of his post but the truthfulness of it.

@9
I’m with you Mr. or Ms. Can’t Recall My Clever Pseudonym. I have for some time thought that the Brewer administration plan to refer a sales tax increase is a method by which to blunt the liberal MSM from making Jan Brewer into Mrs. No (the equivalent of Ron Paul being called Dr. No). If a referred sales tax increase passes then some percentage of the liberal media will hold back slightly (very slightly) in their biased attacks come 2010. If a referred sales tax increase fails then she can cut programs while being able to deflect liberal critiques by saying that she tried to get high taxes but it wasn’t politically practical. The problem with this tactic is that in the end Brewer will become the local equivalent to John McCain, only proposing those ideas that Coughlin’s survey panels find acceptable.

I think in the end her pro-tax increase position will motivate someone to run against her (and win) in the primary and then it will be tax loving media (closet socialists) and their favorite candidate vs the pocketbooks of the taxpayers.

@15
Dependence on excessive spending caused by a ramrod budget is the problem.

On the topic of the Science Foundation Arizona and private contracts with private businesses: If you rely upon government (or organizations dependend upon government) to provide payment for contracts and you don’t think that the vicissitudes of government tax revenues only blow in favor of payment you are living in a world that doesn’t exist. Not learning that lesson is not an option.

@17
Good call.

@21
You are incorrect. Budgets can be cut.

Refusing to face that possibility is a mirror opposite image position to Brewer’s claim that the state government can’t refuse to consider increasing taxes.

These two claims, one that spending *must* be reduced and the other than taxes *must* be increased are really namby-pamby framing efforts that would be better addressed by asking and honestly debating the real question: Which should be the primary method used to balance the budget, increasing taxes or reducing spending?

Wake up, guys! We can’t cut our way out of this problem.

Confused- McGreggor isn’t elected. Clearly in the context of his statement, “We must demonstrate an ability to govern,” he was referring to the Legislature and Executive policy makers.

The size of the amount, $20m, is not the point, there were contracts involved. Is it OK to abort a baby that is only a few weeks old rather than right up to the 20 week mark? Situational ethics. Strong core values say it is never right to do the wrong thing when there is a choice to do better.

The ripples in the water are pretty wide on this one. What you missed by making it about me rather than about the issue is that decisions cannot be made in a vacuum. The inevitability of a course of action that would remedy this lesser of two evils type of choice needs to be made with a full understanding and acceptance of the repercussions, good and bad.

Decision must be looked at for their value and their possible down side before the headline or promotional value.

L’État, c’est moi is no way to govern, even if in a small way or for future political play.

That Ann disagrees tells us much about her core values.

The deficit is real and it is huge. The ramrod budget of the years past has given us years of struggling to maintain solvency in our fair state. There is no way to cut spending enough to absorb the shortage, year after year. The cuts would be so deep as to decimate jobs, communities, and any hope of educational excellence. Do not even start with the charter, voucher line. The resources are not there to do the job.

It is about time the elected leaders of this state step up and do the job that is needed. Enough of the grandstanding and headline grabbing; the ridiculous actions over Science Foundation Arizona has already put the future of this state in a very precarious situation. High profile, revenue producing contracts are in danger of pulling out of Arizona and the list is growing daily. The numbers of new ventures that reconsidered coming into a state that has proven contracts mean nothing has cost us future opportunity. Funny how “conservatives” bemoan the Obama crew when they pulled a switcheroo on legally binding contracts… so how is what happened to Science Foundation Arizona any different? In fact, it is worse!

There is more to reality than a quick headline or flashy blog post. This is the real deal folks and until we all catch on, we can forget any hope of holding on to the 9th floor and the legislature will slip away, too.

But really it is besides the point he is clearly the top advisor to the governor, and the only thing that is important is that she has proposed a massive tax hike.

2010 will be great with McCain and Brewer at the top of the ticket. I think i will just stay home.

Don’t take my word for it, take a look at the R that will challenge her in the primary. She should hope it’s many, but it will only be one.