Two senators squared off about the impending budget shortfall at a meeting of community leaders Oct. 9, as the Senate’s Appropriations Committee chairman and assistant minority leader each spoke about how the state should address the disparity between revenue and spending.
Sen. Bob Burns, R-9, placed the blame for the deficit on a “spending frenzy” in recent years and says the governor and Legislature have been “a little bit shortsighted” in planning for the future.
“We did not plan very well” for an economic downturn, the Appropriations chair told the Valley Citizens League.
The most sensible way to address the estimated $600 million shortfall, Burns said, is to cut spending. He acknowledged the Legislature’s options for cuts would be limited, because much of the $10 billion or so appropriated by lawmakers in untouchable, either through voter-approved mandates or because doing so would be politically unwise.
But Sen. Jorge Luis Garcia, D-27, told the community leaders the blame for the deficit belongs with the tax cuts pushed for by Burns and other Republicans. Garcia said a total of $1.1 billion of revenue was not collected in the past two years, and almost $700 million won’t be collected next year, because of the sweeping tax cuts.
“I’m still waiting for the economy to be stimulated,” he said. “We have done what you have said to stimulate the economy. Now, where’s the return≠ We haven’t seen it.”
And Garcia said the solution to less revenue being collected than was projected shouldn’t be solved by cutting state programs; rather, Arizona needs to raise more revenue.
The state, he said, has made commitments to fund a variety of projects and must meet them. Further, booming growth in recent years means Arizona will be faced with even higher costs in the future, as more people necessitate additional schools and roads.
“If we’re going to accept those responsibilities, then we have to find some revenue,” he said. “If that means increasing revenue, then so be it.”
Garcia expressed support for Gov. Janet Napolitano’s deficit recovery plan, which includes some spending cuts, borrowing to pay for new schools and using money from the rainy day fund.
Burns, though, was not enthusiastic about borrowing or dipping into the state’s rainy day fund. The emergency fund, which contains about $700 million, is designed to aid the state when revenues fall short of expectations.
But Burns said using that money to address the shortfall the state is currently facing would do nothing to solve the problem. A recent legislative economic advisory panel concluded the current economic slump is expected to last four years.
“We don’t have enough money in the rainy day fund to cover us for four years, so I think we need to make some serious changes with regard to our spending,” he said.
Garcia, though, said legislators need to be mindful of the ramifications that program cuts now could have on the state’s future.
“We have to do these things to prepare us for the future, even if it hurts in the meantime,” he said.
That the situation will be painful in the immediate future is without question, Burns said, no matter how lawmakers and Napolitano agree to cover the shortfall.
“It’s not going to be a pretty picture for the next couple years,” he said. “It’s going to be tough.”