Monday, June 08, 2009

AZGOP trying to use the backdoor to impose $1 billion more in cuts to education

The Republicans in the lege, not content with the havoc that they have already wreaked upon Arizona, have designed their budget proposals in a way that could cost the state over $2 billion in federal stimulus money, money that they are counting on to bring the budget into balance.

From AZCentral.com -
Arizona lawmakers and other state officials are debating whether a Republican budget plan approved by the Legislature would jeopardize over $2 billion of federal stimulus funding that Arizona is counting on to keep current and future budgets in the black.

At issue is whether state budget provisions violate conditions set by the federal stimulus law for allotments of approximately $1.7 billion of additional Medicaid dollars for care for poor people and of $1 billion of "stabilization" money intended to prop up state spending on education and other services.
The problems stem from the GOP budget's illegal sweep of auxilliary funds from the universities and its failure to meet "maintenance of effort" standards with education funding.

Rep, Kyrsten Sinema put it mildly with this quote -
“I’m not sure how much more education in Arizona can take from Republican lawmakers,” said Assistant Democratic Leader Kyrsten Sinema. “On top of all their cuts to education, their budget will lose $1 billion in education stimulus money for Arizona schoolchildren.”
She seems to assume that the Republicans aren't fully aware of the impact of their budget.

I say that not only are they aware, they're gleeful over the harm that they are doing to Arizona's future.

David Safier at Blog for Arizona has more here.

Later...

4 comments:

Eli Blake said...

Unfortunately they have willing accomplices in the media, who when this budget plan was being hammered out last month chose to report relatively unimportant fluff.

And this word verification is very apropos to the topic of this post:

"plumet"

just jen said...

I would like to know how one spells out a scream of rage so loud that distant dogs tuck tails between their legs and hide under beds. I would like to know where I find the words to fully articulate the rage swelling in my brain. I would like to know if AZ has REALLY had enough, or are we simply going to continue to roll over for these gleeful bullies? I'm OVER IT!

Thane Eichenauer said...

The media is in league with the Republican legislature?

I'll have to print that up and use it for warm up material at the next group that invites me to speak. (I'm not saying it is likely, just that the claim is so at odds with reality as to be surprisingly funny.)

Craig said...

Thane - I don't know if the MSM is actively "in league" with the Rep caucus in the lege. but there is always a tendency to take it easy on the party in control of a political body because the MSM reporters want access (actually *need* access), and ticking off the majority party can cause them to limit press access.

Jen - the best thing we can do is channel the rage and frustration into ousting enough R's next year to change the complexion of the state's leadership.

Eli - I love accidental irony. :)