Tuesday, November 24th, 2009...1:14 pm
Special Session Quiz
So, which bleeding heart, fiscally irresponsible Democratic legislator said this?
…a fatally flawed legislative budget. The legislative budget ignores my consistently expressed goals and instead incorporates devastating cuts to education, public safety, and our state’s most vital health services for the frail. In particular, this package of bills is shortsighted, in that it sets up an enormous revenue shortfall that will severely harm our State’s future.
and
We have a duty to adopt a budget that honestly and realistically addresses Arizona’s growing fiscal crisis in a fashion that does not devastate the foundation of our most critical state government functions and services. These bills would prevent the proper function of many critical components of state government as well as undermine our efforts to develop and encourage a prosperous future.
and
I have stated throughout my time in office that I am unwilling to agree to a K-12 budget that does not adequately meet the needs of our public education system.
Steve Farley? Kyrsten Sinema? Nope, not a legislator or even a Democrat. It was Janice K. Brewer back in July when she vetoed the legislative budget back then. I’m interested in hearing how the cuts that she signed off on yesterday are so much less devastating now than they would have been then.
15 Comments
November 24th, 2009 at 2:43 pm
I like how in today’s Repub she said reality had set in. Perhaps reality will be different in the next special session. Reality’s a bit of a moving target with her.
November 24th, 2009 at 3:09 pm
“Since I became governor we’ve cut over $1 billion out of the state budget. So we are going to have a great Thanksgiving.”
November 24th, 2009 at 3:56 pm
Reality HAS set in. Politics is the art of the possible and the art of compromise; something the Legislative Dems seem to be unable to understand or accept.
November 24th, 2009 at 4:21 pm
And, of course, reality and what is possible is defined by the majority party.
November 24th, 2009 at 4:57 pm
Ron-
By compromise, I’m assuming you mean your boss’s definition: vote our way or we’ll complain.
November 24th, 2009 at 5:18 pm
Yesterday’s cuts to K-12 cuts were $144 million (http://www.azcentral.com/members/Blog/LiveWire/68191) vs. back in July when she vetoed
$220 million in education cuts and $100 million in social services.
(http://www.azcentral.com/arizonarepublic/news/articles/2009/09/05/20090905azbudget0905.html)
Rep. Crandall referenced this in his vote explanation on the bill, saying that they weren’t making the same cuts. I’ve not followed the numbers too closely (e.g. additional cuts to DES) so if I’m wrong feel free to correct me, but with regards to education, I don’t think the cuts she vetoed back then are the same that she signed off on yesterday.
November 24th, 2009 at 7:42 pm
Maybe she heard there is going to be a second state stimulus?
November 24th, 2009 at 9:13 pm
q-ball, you’re partly right. The cuts to social services made yesterday total $153 million, which is $53 million MORE than the cuts to social services that Brewer vetoed in July (and again in September).
The education cuts made yesterday were $144 million – because federal law (connected to the $1.2 billion in stimulus money we got from the feds to help fill the budget gap) says we can’t go below what the state spent on education back in 2006. So yesterday they cut the most they’re allowed to cut.
November 25th, 2009 at 4:16 am
And Kavanagh says this is just the beginning. Starve the beast, baby!
November 25th, 2009 at 7:31 am
The difference between then and now is that Brewer is now an officially declared candidate for re-election. She is going to get hammered by the other GOP wanna-bes for her sales tax proposal, so she has to reassure them that she can make slashing, mindless cuts that affect those in our society least able to defend themselves as well as the next Republican. Look next for the inevitable pictures of her on a hunting trip, or staring menacingly across the border at the incoming hordes.
November 25th, 2009 at 11:11 am
Reality won’t set in until the kids we won’t be educating start breaking into Scottsdale homes so they can feed their babies and drug habits.
November 25th, 2009 at 12:05 pm
Rex,
Are you suggesting that we should expect to see her photographed pretending to drive a tank?
November 25th, 2009 at 12:43 pm
Tom-
Maybe…or perhaps posing with a flashlight in a shadowy piece of desert…
November 25th, 2009 at 4:37 pm
Will Sheriff Joe let her borrow his tank?
November 25th, 2009 at 6:02 pm
D and D:
No, he won’t let her borrow his tank.
Because if she drives the way she runs the legislature she might get out and go fly to Texas while it was turned on and it would continue on in a straight line and cut a swath of destruction stretching from Glendale to Gilbert.