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Boiling Over?

June 10, 2009 By 13 Comments

OK, so I acknowledge that the title of this post is certainly provocative and I’m sure that some of our readers and commenters will accuse me of “feeding the mass hysteria” but let’s take a moment and observe some incidents and discuss whether we see any particular trend taking place.

Today we watched as some evil wack-job white supremacist walked into the Holocaust Museum and shot two guards killing one. Last week, an Islamic extremist in Tennessee shot two Army recruiters killing one. Over a week ago, another homicidal pro-death nut job murdered abortionist, George Tiller. Yes, these are extreme fringe individuals who do NOT represent the majority of politically involved people whether liberal or conservative.

And let’s not confuse these wackos with the tens of thousands of individuals who having never participated in a political event or rally, gathered across the country on tax day to express their views on taxes, bailouts, spending and federal power.

You’d have to be oblivious to the observation that there is a lot of anger in this country. Some of it has been controlled, organized and kept in check. Unfortunately, there are those extreme and isolated incidents where it boils over, explodes and some raving lunatic goes off the deep end. In NO WAY do I condone those individuals nor their actions.

My observation is that in all my politically aware years (30+), I have never seen this much frustration and anger. I will argue that the vast majority of the unrest is driven by the economy and exacerbated by the direction that the country is heading by the new administration and Congress.

My question to our readers is, are we really trending toward a political revolution in this country? Are many of you getting a sense, like me, that we are going to see more incidents boil over as those in political power push the country further toward socialism?

Now those of you who have a knee jerk reaction to this post and want to accuse me of being an aggravator or bomb thrower, you’ve misunderstood this post. Read no further. Go back to the beginning and read again.

Let me be clear. In NO way do I advocate bloodshed or violence. Excuse the colloquialism but this has to be about ballots NOT bullets.

Do I think the country is heading toward a revolt, coup, overthrow, rebellion? I sure hope and pray not (after all one of the most unique characteristics of our country is the peaceful transition of power). But given the amount of frustration I’m sensing, I would not be surprised.

UPDATE: I just turned on FoxNews to catch the late night rerun of Glenn Beck and here was his opening segment. (I missed the 2 PM airing earlier this afternoon due to a meeting.) This kinda freaked me out.

 

 

Filed Under: Conspiracy Theories, Government, Human Condition

Governor’s “urgent” tax increase budget includes $15 million for the arts

June 10, 2009 By 2 Comments

Sen. Jack Harper told the Legislative Report that Governor Brewer’s staff is including unnecessary items in the budget that benefit their former clients. He believes Paul Senseman, who formerly lobbied for arts organizations, is behind an extra $15 million for the arts industry. He suspects Eileen Kolein, formerly a lobbyist for United HealthCare, was responsible for leaving out a provision in the budget that would delay AHCCCS capitation.  Harper said, “I believe that the governor’s staff has disproportionately influenced the budget with their former clients in mind.”

Filed Under: Spending, State Budget, Taxation

Honest budget debate requires common starting point

June 10, 2009 By 7 Comments

By Byron Schlomach, Ph.D.
Goldwater Institute

It’s easy to be confused when it comes to the state budget and the competing plans for closing next year’s deficit.

On the one hand, Governor Brewer says there is a $4 billion deficit going into 2010. On the other hand, the Legislature says it’s a $3 billion deficit. The Legislature’s plan claims to trim the budget by $630 million, while the Governor claims $930 million in reductions. Yet, it’s consistently reported in the news that the Legislature is cutting more than the Governor.

Clearly, the two sides are using different starting points, making it rather hard to get at the truth. The Legislature apparently starts with the current 2009 budget; but the governor starts with the 2009 budget as written before January, and doesn’t take into account the budget reductions that were already made this year.

To help address this problem in the future, the Goldwater Institute has recommended that state finances be independently certified by the State Treasurer’s office to provide lawmakers with an accurate figure upon which to base the budget.

But the biggest subterfuge of the budgeting process to-date is the amount of state spending reported and the degree of shrinkage that has occurred in government. Since 2007, General Fund spending in Arizona has been pretty much flat, around $10 billion, as shown in the graph below. Total state spending, however, including all special funds, fund sweeps, and federal monies, has increased every single year (with the possible exception of yet-to-be-completed FY 2009).

graph
 
 In other words, by using fund sweeps, increased federal funding, and other gimmicks, policymakers have mostly avoided actually reducing state government. In fact, state government employment increased through most of 2008 and as recently as February was still higher than in 2007. Local government employment has also continued to grow throughout the recession.

Perhaps with a common set of assumptions and an honest look at the big picture, we could finally get the state budget problem resolved. Regular Arizona taxpayers’ pocketbooks are shrinking; it’s high time government shared the pain.

Byron Schlomach, Ph.D, is director of economic policy at the Goldwater Institute.

Filed Under: Economics, Spending, State Budget