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Gascón & Berman Departing Shots

June 17, 2009 By Leave a Comment

Having grown up and educated on the cinema of Clint Eastwood aka, Harry Callahan, aka, “Dirty Harry” of San Francisco fame, I can properly say to outgoing Mesa Chief of Police, George Gascón, “I knew Dirty Harry. Chief Gascón, you’re no Dirty Harry.” Maybe now, the chief can pack up his things including his slick glamour shots taken by local photographer, Jamie Peachey,  and head to the City by the Bay to impress the liberal establishment there – A perfect match. (Photo of Gascon credited and hyperlinked to the Phoenix New Times in this post.)

Just south of Mesa, the Town of Gilbert swore in a new mayor and council last night. During part of the “inauguration ceremony” outgoing Mayor Steve Berman decided to present a slide show of his fond memories of service on the council. When it came time to talk about Council woman Linda Abbott, Berman showed a slide of a woman with a gun to her head. He claimed it was symbolic of the pressure Abbott would get for supporting a tax increase. However, given the audible gasp that arose from some in the audience, many probably took it to mean something else. For those of you who may have forgotten, among the many things Berman was accused of doing by his then wife during their acrimonious marriage was plotting to kill Abbott. (Link to the Town of Gilbert meeting online about 42 minutes into the video.)

Filed Under: City Government

Effective budgeting starts with honest bookkeeping

June 17, 2009 By 4 Comments

By Byron Schlomach, Ph.D.
Goldwater Institute
 
The high-stakes game of chicken the Arizona Legislature and Governor are playing over the $3 billion or $4 billion 2010 budget shortfall (depending on who’s counting) is certainly bad, but you may not know the half of it.

An organization made up of accountants and other financial experts called the Institute for Truth in Accounting (ITA) has exhaustively studied every state’s comprehensive annual financial report (CAFR). In its study, the ITA concluded that many states fail to honestly account for both revenues and spending.

States use cash-basis accounting while the private sector uses accrual accounting. Cash accounting only looks at current inflows and outflows. It fails to account for accrued obligations, such as retirement benefits. States ignore “accounts payable” in their accounting systems, including contract payment obligations. Consequently, state balance sheets grossly understate liabilities.

After studying Arizona, the ITA concludes that while the state claimed $11.2 billion in net assets in 2007, it was actually carrying $16.6 billion in net liabilities. That’s an accounting error of $27.8 billion. The discrepancy can largely be attributed to ignoring Arizona’s long-term health and pension liabilities.

Now to be fair, the state is doing nothing illegal. But elected officials benefit from efforts to hide the true state of government finances because it allows them to engage in continued, unsustainable spending and avoid tough decisions. At minimum, even if Arizona keeps using cash accounting, the state should be required to keep a second, honest set of books.

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

Filed Under: Economics, Spending, State Budget, State Government

Will our Congressional delegation rubberstamp Burke’s appointment?

June 17, 2009 By 3 Comments

The Republic ran an article yesterday noting our prior objections to Dennis Burke for U.S. Attorney. As you will recall, the Obama administration is going to remove current U.S. Attorney Diane Humetawa, the first Native American woman U.S. Attorney, and replace her with Burke, a political hack for Napolitano whose claim to fame is milking the taxpayers for TV ads featuring himself in order to raise his visibility when he was exploring an AG run. As a result, there is currently a bill in the legislature that would ban all state officials from using their faces in advertising.

We wonder how the Arizona delegation will vote on his confirmation. We hope Judiciary Committee member Jon Kyl will fully explore what role gun-grabber Burke had in, as the Republic article notes, pushing anti-gun legislation while he worked for DeConcini.

We hope that Kyl will fully explore how Burke and his band of Ninth Floor pirates looted the place on their way out by cashing in obscene amounts of vacation time, in violation of state rules and in the midst of a severe financial crisis.

Also, what’s wrong with this picture? A white male who is a member of an elitist country club that discriminates against woman is tapped to replace a Native American woman in a high profile position and, we get nothing from the media? Of course, the nominee is a Democrat!

Filed Under: Judicial