Rum, Romanism and Rebellion

Action alert from the sent by the Arizona Education Association yesterday.

This afternoon Representative Russell Pearce (R - Mesa) held the first hearing on the House Republican Leadership’s budget proposal where it passed his House Appropriations Committee. An initial review reveals a budget package that is out of touch with the needs and priorities of Arizona voters. It falls far short of providing adequate funding for our public schools and those who work in them and includes a package of tax giveaways that can be appropriately described as “corporate welfare.”

A large majority of Arizona voters are willing to increase their own taxes in order to begin providing adequate funding to a public education system that ranks 50th in the nation in per pupil expenditures. Arizonans want to pay teachers more, reduce class size, and ensure a quality education or every Arizona child. Instead, this budget includes the following provisions:

Tax Giveaways to Corporations:
$48 million in tax giveaways primarily for corporate interests on top of the $591 million in tax cuts already included due to last year’s budget deal.

Meager Additional Assistance to K-12 Funding
$20 million in additional K-12 funding for school districts to use at board/administration’s discretion; there is no requirement to put this small sum of money towards teacher and education support employee salaries. The increase equals less than $20 per student.

Substantial Additional Assistance to Charter Schools
$10 million in additional funding to charter schools. This increase equals roughly $107 per student.

This budget represents the wishes of the House Republican Leadership, not the people of Arizona. It is a return to partisan politics driving a budget process that is all about “insider deals.” The House Minority Leader Phil Lopes (D - Tucson) and his caucus have been left out of the process by House Speaker Jim Weiers (R - NW Phoenix). Along with House Majority Leader Tom Boone (R- Glendale) and Appropriations Chair Russell Pearce, Speaker Weiers is using the process to broker backroom deals and take advantage of legislators who are more interested in partisan bickering than representing their constituents.

AEA recommended House Representatives Pete Rios (D - Hayden), Linda Lopez (D- Tucson) and Olivia Cajero Bedford (D-Tucson) voted to pass this budget out of the Appropriations Committee today. Each of these three legislators are a part of a small group of Democratic House members who were unhappy with committee appointments recommended by their party caucus leaders as the legislative session began. After a meeting with Speaker Weiers in January, committee appointments were modified and many political observers have been predicting an “inside deal” was sure to follow. It remains to be seen if these three and a few others Democrats will support this budget when it reaches the floor for a vote of the entire House. If so, we believe these legislators will be putting committee appointments above the policy needs of those of us who elected them.

The budget package must pass a full vote of the House after being approved by the Rules Committee and discussed in the House Democratic and Republican Caucuses.

This budget does not deserve further consideration. Let your House Representatives know that you want this proposal rejected if it ever reaches another vote. Help ensure that quality public education and the will of the people rises above partisan politics and insider deals.

More details will be sent to you tomorrow to ensure you have a full understanding of this proposal before it is voted on in the House. Please check your email. But, action is needed immediately.

The AEA is asking its members to e-mail Rios, Lopez and Cajero Bedford and demand that they not support the budget when it hits the floor.

What is most disturbing is not that they voted for this budget (although, that is bad enough), but that their proposed amendments, in an attempt to be revenue neutral, apparently did things such as cut AHCCCS payments to rural hospitals. I’m hoping to be able to track down their amendments and cuts they requested before the end of the day.