Wednesday, May 06, 2009

Rally at the lege tomorrow to fight the Rep budget...

Via Facebook -

Subject: Join us at the state capitol tomorrow!

Stop the Massive Budget Cuts!

Enough is Enough! It is time we stand up and take action by joining forces for a better Arizona!

Yesterday the House Appropriations Committee adopted a state budget proposal that includes MASSIVE budget cuts to child protection services, health care, education, and numerous support services for seniors and families. These cuts take Arizona in the wrong direction and will damage our economy, workforce, families, and the future of our state! We must and not allow more cuts which will reduce our workforce and not contribute to moving Arizona in the right direction.

There is still time to influence the budget before it is final! But our elected officials need to hear from us.

Tomorrow, progressive organizations including the Arizona AFL-CIO will join together to kick off the Arizona Budget Coalition! We will mobilize for a press conference to speak out against harmful budget cuts and speak out for better options that balance the budget without cuts to jobs, education, health, and human services.

Please join us TOMORROW, Thursday, May 7 at 9:00 a.m. on the Senate lawn at the capitol, 1700 West Washington. (17th Ave and Washington) Best parking lot is South of 17th Street off of Washington.

We hope to see you there!

In Solidarity,

Rebekah Friend,
Executive Director, Arizona AFL-CIO

The Principles of the Arizona Budget Coalition

1. Make budget decisions in an open and transparent budget process that includes opportunities for input from all legislators and the public

2. Reverse massive FY2009 cuts which caused devastating impact on vital programs and services in education and universities and in health and human services

3. Do no further harm to Arizona economy through additional unnecessary and reckless cuts to services or jobs on which our residents and our state's future depend

4. Use a comprehensive approach to balance our budget, including federal stimulus funding, revenue enhancements, reasonable reductions in expenditures that avoid job loss, accounting adjustments, long-term financing, and rejection of irresponsible tax cuts

5. Keep people working so our economy can recover – especially front-line employees delivering public services

6. Create a fair and adequate tax structure to enable government to carry out its obligations and to stimulate long-term economic growth

7. Preserve state revenue sharing to ensure local governments remain financially viable and able to contribute to a healthy economy

I can't make it tomorrow, but urge everyone who has the opportunity to go. Our legislators need to know that people are watching, and that if they put ideology before the best interests of Arizona and its residents, we will remember it in November of 2010.

2 comments:

Thane Eichenauer said...

The points sound oh so very reasonable, so open, so consensus oriented, so transparent, so un-devastating, so un-reckless, so responsible, so fair, so adequate and so viable, who could possibly oppose that?

It it weren't for all the accounting tricks of this and prior years I could sum this up as, taxes plus borrowing=spending. If there is inadequate revenue then some choose reduced government spending. If there is inadequate revenue others would choose increased taxation (again, excluding tricks).

There are only two choices no matter how many fancy pants words you (Ms. Friend) drape over the idea of government budgeting.

Eli Blake said...

Thane,

The problem is that if there is inadequate revenue then you don't make it more inadequate by handing out a quarter billion dollar tax cut to a handful of wealthy campaign contributers with well-paid lobbyists, as the legislature does in this budget.

In fact, as a federal taxpayer, I'm also pissed that instead of choosing to spend my taxes that came back to the state via the stimulus bill on education and other needs, the legislature has in effect used it to finance another tax cut for a handful of wealthy individuals and corporations.