12News' Sunday Square Off: Jan Brewer's "Let them eat cake" moment

Resnik - "Is it fair that businesses should get these tax breaks while universities suffer and those patients suffer?"

Brewer - "Absolutely.  Absolutely."

Earlier on Sunday, Arizona Governor Jan Brewer appeared on 12 News' (KPNX) Sunday Square Off program, hosted by Brahm Resnik, to defend the hundreds of million dollars worth of corporate tax cuts she signed into law a few days ago. 

Her appearance was an exercise in regurgitation -

She regurgitated the long-refuted theories of trickle-down economics (which should be referred to as "tinkle down" economics).

I regurgitated the undigested remnants of breakfast while listening to her spout (that's just a metaphor - I hadn't eaten breakfast yet :) ).

My favorite quote is above, but there were other "profound" tidbits from the program (video clip embedded below) -

3:32

Brewer -  ...I know that the free enterprise is what really stokes the fuel of the furnace, and the furnace is business in Arizona..

Resnik -  So it *is* something of a gamble?

Brewer -  Life is a gamble.

Or how about -

4:00 (talking about the impact of the corporate tax breaks on Arizona's unemployment crisis)

Resnik - People are asking "How soon will half a billion dollars in tax breaks create a job for me?"

Brewer - Because we know businesses, particularly high paying wage businesses, are the people who create those jobs and if you stymie them and you make it impossible for them to maintain here by charging them above their competitive states that we're competing with, they won't come here, they won't stay here, they will go someplace else and if we become competitive, they will bring new jobs, we will keep the jobs that we have, and that means that it's, [not] to use the phrase "the trickle down, the bottom line is that more people will have jobs, and therefore those people with the jobs are going to go out and it's going to trickle down to the lawnmower guy, to the dry cleaner, it's just the facts.

Resnik - So if those tax cuts don't take effect for another few years, how soon would you expect to see new jobs here created by those tax breaks?

Brewer - Well, you know, we have been very creative since I have been governor, and we've been very successful at bringing new businesses here. We've been named the solar king of the nation, which we're very proud of and that's one of my number one goals in regards to what kind of jobs that we're looking for. So we have been somewhat successful, but we know that if we have the ability to move forward, and now that we have done that with the competitive package, big businesses don't just pick up and move overnight. They need to know that there's stability and predictability, and then, they come, and so, we have the very best people working on the Commerce Authority, and it's going to be a good thing for Arizona.

Resnik - Speaking of predictability/unpredictability, you and many Republicans have said this year, next year, and the year after that, the state is going to have trouble paying its bills. A lot of folks might be wondering how you explain these tax breaks to universities who are going to be losing millions of dollars in funding, to tens of thousands of people who are going to be losing their health care. Help us understand how you can justify tax breaks on the one hand and all these deep cuts on the other hand.

Brewer - Well, we don't...if we do not encourage business growth, that brings jobs to Arizona, it's going to get worse. So we have to look out of the box, and have not the money to continue down that path of spending. So we have cut up into this point of time over two billion dollars out of government. Government needs to get smaller. And businesses need to be able to have and appreciate and work within the free enterprise system. That's what's going to generate, that's what's going to turn us around.

Yup.  In case you didn't notice, Brahm Resnik asked a direct question and for nearly three minutes, Brewer wasn't even in the same area code as a direct answer.

The quote leading this post happened at about the 6:58 mark -

Resnik - Is it fair that businesses should get these tax breaks while universities suffer and those patients suffer?

Brewer - Absolutely. Absolutely.

Resnik - Because?

Brewer - Because it is business that drives our economy. It's business that allows people to have jobs. It's the jobs that allow people to spend the money and it's jobs that allow people to become and be self-responsible for themselves.

And finally, on her cuts to education -

Brewer - Since I have been governor, I have been, really, the leading advocate for education, all the way from the grammar schools, to the junior high schools, the middle schools, and high schools, and the universities. And I went in, and I was the one that stepped forward to try to protect education from some devastating cuts the last year when I went to the public and asked for the temporary one cent sales tax because I knew that we needed that bridge to protect that portion of our education system. And then I went to the universities and spoke with the presidents and I spoke with the Board of Regents, of which I am a member, and told them exactly what's going to take place, that we were headed for a cliff, and it's not only happening here in Arizona, it's happening across the country, and they needed to come forward and bring me a plan, that was two years ago. During those two years, there was a lot of dialogue, they started working with the community colleges, and so they were very much aware of what was going to take place. So now, I am still waiting. They have presented a few things to me in regards to what they can do. The bottom line is they're going to have to streamline just like everybody else has had to streamline. We all know how important our research and development is at our universities. We know that businesses work with them. That's why there's an incentive piece in the Commerce Authority bill to allow that to happen. The bottom line is, is if you don't have the money, then everyone is going to have to share some of that responsibility, of streamlining, and doing a better job with the revenues that they have.  

The video included here is short, approximately 10 minutes, and it is included to both show that none of these quotes were made up, or were misleadingly taken out of context (hey, I may be partisan, but I have higher journalistic standards than, say,  Fox News.)

BTW, Brewer's handlers really might want to go back to their campaign plan of keeping her away from open mikes.  Resnik didn't ambush her or treat her poorly, but she still crammed both of her feet in her mouth.

Up to her knees.

Governor gambles on cuts to AHCCCS, and is told by the feds that she won the bet...

...but the voters are standing in the way of her collecting on the bet...

On Tuesday, U.S. Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius sent a response to Governor Jan Brewer's request for a waiver of federal "maintenance of effort" (MOE) standards for Arizona's Medicaid program, called AHCCCS.

From the Arizona Republic, written by Mary K. Reinhart -

Arizona doesn't need federal approval to eliminate 250,000 people from its Medicaid rolls in order to continue to receive federal matching dollars, health officials said Tuesday.

Lawmakers had sought to eliminate coverage for low-income Arizonans to help close a huge budget shortfall, but recently passed federal health reform mandates that states maintain their level of coverage.

In a letter to Brewer today, U.S. Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius said the state's entire program comes up for federal reauthorization Sept. 30, and Arizona could simply choose to stop covering the childless adults who Gov. Jan Brewer and legislative Republicans are seeking to drop from the rolls.

In other words, the feds didn't grant a waiver so much as tell Brewer if she waited until the end of the federal fiscal year, she could just make changes without the need for federal action.  Brewer's almost-gleeful press release on the announcement is here.

Now Brewer faces two related problems with her effort to kick poor people off of AHCCCS -

1.  The affected population (people with an income of up to 100% of the federal poverty level (FPL) isn't covered by a federal dictate or because of a decision by Arizona politicians, but because the voters *overwhelmingly* approved Proposition 204 in November 2000.  The income eligibility standard is voter-protected and cannot be overridden by Brewer or the legislature.  Historically, voters in Arizona have been loathe to overturn measures that were previously approved by the voters themselves, especially when a proposal to do so is pushed by the legislature.

2. If she convinces the legislature to refer this to the ballot, she (and they) will have to deal with the PR nightmare of explaining how the state cannot afford to help Arizona's poorest residents at the same time they're railroading through a bill to give tax gifts to corporations and the wealthy that will eventually cost Arizona taxpayers more than $500 million per year. 

Jan and her clan are going to have to some serious tapdancing on this one if they hope to cash in on the bet that they've made against the lives of Arizona's most vulnerable.

The newest plank in the platform for Arizona Republicans: Disdain.

The Republicans of Arizona inhabit such a rarified area of our mortal coil, that they've developed a curious attitude toward those of us who have to deal with day-to-day issues that are rather more "mundane."

Some might call that attitude "detached", but I would call it "disdainful."

- They've got nothing but disdain for voters, seeking authorization to override Prop 204 and the requirement to provide AHCCCS coverage for Arizonans with income up to 100% of the federal poverty level...

- They've got nothing but disdain for poor, sick people (somewhat related to the above, and thanks to Donna at Democratic Diva for spotting and highlighting this).

Speaking on KJZZ's (NPR) Here And Now, Eileen Klein, Governor Jan Brewer's Chief of Staff  (starting at approximately the 6:45 mark of the audio archive) -

 ...we need to be using our resources in areas like education and other areas that can help build and grow our state, to make our state more competitive for the long run and unfortunately, while those services are helpful to people in areas like medicaid, they aren't doing anything to help contribute to the growth of the state...

Poor people dying for lack of appropriate medical care, like transplants, aren't worthy of consideration; corporations holding their hands out for targeted tax cuts, well, they aren't just supported, they're fast-tracked.

- They've got nothing but disdain for those, like Michael Bloomberg, the Mayor of the City of New York, who have criticized Arizona for making it so easy for people like Jared Loughner to obtain semi-automatic pistols with high-capacity magazines.

Video of how easy it is -



Republican Governor Jan Brewer's response (from Howie Fischer of Capitol Media Services, via the Arizona Daily Sun)?

Gov. Jan Brewer is defending Arizona laws that allow the sale of firearms at gun shows without a background check and forbid cities from imposing such requirements.


"We believe our laws are fair and just in the state of Arizona,'' the governor said Monday.

Her comments come on the heels of New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg releasing videos Monday taken by undercover agents at a Phoenix gun show just 15 days after the Tucson shootings. There, Arizona private investigators hired by New York City were able to purchase weapons not only without a background check but, at least twice, after admitting to sellers they probably would not pass.

Brewer said she had not seen the videos. Nor had she seen Bloomberg's comments.

But the governor said the laws are "something that the Legislature and I decide.''

Last year Brewer signed legislation making Arizona only the third state in the nation to let anyone carry a concealed weapon without a state permit, training and a background check. But Brewer said Monday she remains open to further liberalizing of the state's gun laws.

"I am a strong proponent of the Second Amendment,'' she said.

Apparently, she is such "strong proponent" of guns, that she doesn't let a few dead bodies outside Tucson Safeway get in the way of her slavish devotion to the NRA's blind dogma.


Welcome to Arizona, the place where many residents want to build a wall to keep Mexican out, but may soon be the place where neighbors want to build a wall to keep Arizonans in.

Special session: they've got this train running at full speed

...and they're aiming at the state's most vulnerable residents...


Wednesday afternoon, the Arizona Legislature convened a special session in order to pass bills related to Governor Jan Brewer's plan to kick 280,000 people off of AHCCCS.

The first order of business was to declare an "emergency" and suspend the rules related to things like public notice of committee agendas and time requirements.

Under normal conditions, it takes at least three days minimum to pass a bill.  However, with the rules suspended, bills can be passed in one day.  However, they're taking two for this special session.
Matching bills were "read" ("introduced") in each chamber of the legislature today and went through committee hearings in both chambers.

The bills are SB1001 and HB2001.

The bills will pass, one will be substituted for the other (a parliamentary procedure to speed up the process) and will be forwarded to the Governor, who will then have permission to ask the feds for an eligibility waiver to cut the number of people on AHCCCS.

The expectation around the Capitol is that the feds will say "NO!" but even in the unlikely event that federal permission is forthcoming, with voter approval of 2000's Prop 204 (setting eligibility at 100% of the federal poverty level), the legislature cannot adjust AHCCCS eligibility without voter approval.

Bills, HCR2001 and HCR2002, were introduced to amend the Arizona Constitution to bar the voters from ever expanding AHCCCS coverage again.  If either was passed, it would have mandated a special election on May 17, 2011.

Both were introduced by Rep. Jack Harper (R-Surprise!), but neither one was heard in committee, so they are probably dead for now.

Other bills that were introduced for the special session but not heard in committee -

HB2002 (Harper) and SB1002 (Schapira, Sinema, Tovar) would have changed what sort of organ transplants are covered by AHCCCS.  Republican Harper's bill would have made the change conditional upon voter approval of his amendment to the AZ Constitution; the bill proposed by Democrats Schapira, Sinema, and Tovar has no such conditional enactment clause, but did include an emergency clause for immediate enactment.

Sinema also introduced SB1003 and SB1004.  SB1003 was basically the same as SB1002, while SB1004 would have repealed a specific tax credit and directed the revenue toward paying for AHCCCS transplants.

This special session should be over by around 2:30 p.m. on Thursday, just in time for the legislators to head home for the weekend on their normal schedule.

The other bills...OK, the amendment to the AZ Constitution/special election...can wait until a later special session if the feds throw everyone a curveball and actually give the Governor permission to kick the poorest Arizonans off of AHCCCS.  The word is that another special session will be called by the end of the month, one relating to tax cuts for business, masquerading as "economic development."

Stay tuned...

Live blogging Senate Appropriations - special session

2:39 p.m. - Special session SB1001 passes 9 - 4.  Biggs announces vote and adjourns meeting in same breath.

2:38 p.m. - Biggs wonders if state will have to "emasculate" education to fund AHCCCS.

2:36 p.m. - Allen votes yes.  Biggs says bill generates needed "discussion".  Says that lawsuits will follow.

2:35 p.m. - Sylvia Allen says that they should be allowed to reform all programs to balance budget.

2:34 p.m. - Sinema votes no.

2:30 p.m. - Sinema points out that even a federal waiver won't override Prop 204, which expanded AHCCCS eligibility to 100% of the federal property level.

2:29 p.m. - Biggs hurrying Schapira.  Schapira votes no.

2:26 - Schapira - Preventative care is better and cheaper than treatment, and this will increase indigent treatment costs, possibly more than is saved.

2:24 p.m. - Schapira call this a "poor policy" with likely negative business and economic impacts on the state.

2:23 - Aboud (D) voting no.  Calls out Republicans for protecting wealthy and corps while targeting poor..  Calls bill a "half-hearted" publicity stunt.

2:21 p.m. - Rs all voting yes.  What a shock.

2:18 p.m. - Sen. Andy Biggs gavelled meeting into session.  Democrats walking in as voting starts.

Live blogging the start of the first special session of the year...

...and expect plenty more, with another one possible by the end of the month...

2:10 p.m. - Heading to the meeting of Senate Appropriations

2:08 p.m. - Introducing doctor of the day, somebody from Mesa.

2:07 p.m. - SB1001, SB1002 referred to committees

2:02 p.m. - Notifying House that they are ready to conduct business/this train.

2:00 p.m. - Rules suspended so it won't take three days to railroad this through.

1:58 p.m. - Reading proclamation for special session.

1:56 p.m. - Gavelled into session.  Prayer, pledge, taking attendance.

That didn't take long - 1st Special Session of the 50th Arizona Legislature on tap for Wednesday

The Governor has called a special session of the legislature for Wednesday at 1:45 p.m.

Purpose:  To petition the federal government for permission to kick 280,000 people off of Medicaid (AHCCCS in Arizona)

One thing can be said about Arizona -

There will never be a dearth of subject material for political writers.

Governor's proposed budget: tells home owners, poor, students, that she thinks that they're #1...

...only she that isn't her *index* finger that she's waggling in the air...

Corporations and their executives and lobbyists are smiling today.  The Governor released her budget proposal Friday, to loud praise from Republicans in the legislature, and louder criticism from Democrats...educators...students...human service advocates...home owners....

Her budget...

...transfers at least $62 million in tax burden from corporations to individual home owners

...seeks to deny health care services for 280K Arizonans, including the seriously mentally ill

..cuts another quarter BILLION dollars from higher education, all but ensuring more massive tuition hikes for Arizona's next generation

...forces Arizona's cash-strapped K-12 school districts, already reeling from years of state-level attacks on their fiscal stability, to absorb millions more in borrowing costs foisted off on them by the state's mismanagment

This is just the first step in what is likely to be a long process (but not as long as it could be - the Rs have supermajorities in both chambers of the legislature and will pass anything that they want to, even if one or two individual members of their caucus balks at the ugliness proposed by Jan Brewer and her lobbyist-advisers).

State Rep. Carl Seel (R-Minuteman) has already proposed an amendment to the Arizona Constitution to reduce the income eligibility level for AHCCCS (Arizona's Medicaid program), currently at 100% of the federal poverty level.

On Tuesday, there will be a meeting of the joint appropriations committees of the House and Senate in HHR1 at approximately 9:15 a.m.  At that time, they'll receive a presentation on the budget proposal from the Governor's Office of Strategic Planning and Budgeting.


More:

From the Governor: the central web page on the budget is here; a presentation on the background of the budget here; a presentation on the budget proposal here; summary of the proposal here; a detailed version here; appendices are here.

Mary Jo Pitzl of the Arizona Republic has a story on the budget proposal here; Mary K. Reinhart of the Republic has a story here; Alia Beard Rau has an analysis of the proposal's effect on higher ed is here; Reinhart has a piece on public safety impacts here; an AZ Republic uncredited piece with more numbers and reaction from legislators and those affected by the proposal is here.

The Arizona Capitol Times has coverage also, but that coverage is behind a subscription firewall.

Later...

BrewerCare Body Count: 2

From the Arizona Senate Democratic Caucus (the full story is at the Arizona Guardian, but that's behind a subscriber firewall) -

Today, University Medical Center in Tucson has confirmed that a UMC patient, who was awaiting a transplant, but was refused the life saving procedure because of Republican budget cuts, has died.


“It’s time to put politics aside and restore the transplant funding,” said incoming Senate Minority Leader David Schapira. “Gov. Brewer and the Republican leadership at the legislature need to join us and take immediate action to fix their mistake. Failure to restore this funding is a death sentence for people who have committed no crimes.”

So what are Brewer and company doing while people are dying?

...Giving out medals to commemorate her inauguration, while ignoring public records requests seeking information about the cost of those medals and the rest of the inauguration-related costs...

...Trotting out legislation attacking brown-skinned babies...

...Preparing for a high-dollar fundraiser in Paradise Valley, where almost the entire directory of Arizona lobbyist will pay $250 or more for the (dubious) privilege of cozying up to Senate President-elect Russell Pearce...

...Balancing the state's budget...oh, wait, that's the one thing that they *aren't" doing...

How many have to die before they are sated?

BTW - some readers may think that last sentence is too much, but it's a lot milder than what I originally typed -

Jan and her clan - rolling back Arizona's population growth, one poor person at a time.

Jan " BrewerCare Death Panels" Brewer says that organ transplants are "potentially life-saving"

...but before anyone gets excited, she's using that to buttress her argument in support of further cutting Medicaid in Arizona...

From Governor Brewer's letter to Congress begging to be allowed to cut Medicaid (known in AZ as "AHCCCS") further -

...Because we cannot change our generous eligibility standards, Arizona has taken actions to reduce our Medicaid cost, such as limits on services not mandated by Medicaid, including potentially life-saving organ transplantations...

The "eligibility standards" (page 26 of the linked .pdf) that Brewer et. al. consider to be so "generous"?

Income that doesn't exceed 100% of the federal poverty level (FPL).  That's $10,830/year for a single adult or $22,050/year for a family of four.

Only Jan and her clan can keep a straight face when describing abject poverty as "generous."

H/T to State Sen.-elect David Schapira (D-LD17), quoted in the Arizona Capitol Times, for the heads-up on this...

2010 Ebbie Awards

...sort of patterned after Keith Olbermann's "Worst Persons In The World" segment on his nightly show...


Second Runner-Up -

Unnamed personnel from the Maryland Department of Natural Resources.

From Treehugger.com -

Photo: U. S. Fish and Wildlife Service - Northeast Region

To many people, Jim Hart and Khalil Abusakran are heroes. When the two men from Maryland, saw a deer stranded in the icy waters of the Patapsco River, they did what few others would dare. With an inflatable boat, the duo ventured out and rescued the animal before it perished in the frozen stream. But, after they and the deer returned to shore, it wasn't a hero's reception that awaited them -- instead, the two men were slapped with fines for not having life-jackets aboard their vessel.

I freely admit, I'm not sure I would have done the same thing - venturing out into freezing water to save a deer - I'm just not that brave.  Or foolish (hopefully :) ).  However, the act of the the officers of the MD Department of Natural Resources, fining these two men for doing something that the DNR officers refused to do, merits Christmas Eve visits from the Ghosts of Bambi Past, Present, and Future (and I don't mean the kind of "Bambi" who brings her own stripper pole, either :) ).


First Runner-Up -

Arizona Senator John McCain.

From Politico's Daily Beast -

Railing against Don't Ask Don't Tell, shooting down an immigration bill he once sponsored, pushing his own changes to START—the tougher John McCain who emerged in the primaries may be here to stay.


{snip}

Conversations with friends, advisers, and analysts reveal McCain as a man still angry at his 2008 presidential loss, fueling his desire to remain in the spotlight and an important part of the debate, even on issues where he is out of step with the majority of Americans.

For taking his anger out on gay and lesbian servicemembers, 9/11 first responders, foreign policy, DREAMers, and still doing nothing to actually represent Arizona in D.C., McCain earns a visit from the Ghosts of Mavericks Past.

Obviously, the Maverick is already gone, so there's no Present or Future Mavericks around to make some visits.



And the "winner" is...

Arizona Governor Jan Brewer

There was consideration of making this a group award, also giving it to Russell Pearce and the rest of the Republican caucus in the legislature.  Most of the wave of nastiness emanating from West Washington these days gets its start in the R caucus room, but Brewer is the one who has taken it national and has ridden the wave all the way to a full term on the 9th floor.

Latest example (and there are many examples - could have gone with imagined headless bodies in the desert, actual bodies due to BrewerCare, her ties to private prison lobbyists), blaming the tepid health care reform package passed by Congress earlier this year for her inability to balance Arizona's budget for the last two years -

Heading into a new year with a new Legislature and a new Congress, the primary area of budget focus for Arizona will be our need for action by the federal government on "Obamacare."


If our state budget is to be balanced, it will require action by Congress and the White House. They must provide flexibility to states so we have the ability to create sustainable Medicaid programs.

For her shameless leadership of the hate brigade, Jan's Christmas Eve visitors will be the ghosts of Cecilia Esquer (a long-time civil rights champion and Chicana activist), Mark Price (the first victim to succumb to her cutting off AHCCCS benefits to transplant patients) and Gary and Linda Haas (the couple murdered in New Mexico by escapees from one of the private prisons championed by Brewer and her advisers/lobbyists).

Later...

Jan Brewer's approach to balancing the state's budget: Abdicate...responsibility

Sunday's Arizona Republic(-an Party press release outlet) contains an op-ed published under the Governor's name wherein she assesses the reasons for the inability of the state's elected leaders to balance Arizona's budgets.

She looks at previously enacted cuts to...

...the state's work force...

...K-12 education funding...

...University-level education funding...

...prison spending...

...child care enrollees (I think that she is talking about her drastic cuts to KidsCare here)

...and the fact that she, Russell Pearce, and the rest of the Republicans on West Washington will be looking to further decimate education and social safety net programs in the coming year...

And blames the devastating cuts, past and pending, on [drum roll please]...


...the federal health care reform package that was signed into law earlier this year, describing it with the Republican epithet "ObamaCare".


In the op-ed, she blithely ignored...

...the state's increased population over the last decade, requiring an increased, or at least a status-quo, level of services...

...the state's decreased revenues due to both the cratered economy and generations of ideologically-driven but reality-blind tax cuts for corporations and the wealthiest Arizonans...

...years of papering over the state's structural deficits (caused by the blind revenue-cutting) with accounting tricks like pushing back mandated payments (aka - "kicking the can down the road").


This op-ed, probably written by a puppeteer/staffer but published under Brewer's name, clearly signals that she and her R colleagues have no intention of addressing the state's fiscal crisis in a professional and responsible manner, instead choosing to put their efforts into misdirecting attention away from their continued willful ineptitude.


The Arizona GOP: the party that keeps on giving...the finger to the next generation.

Christmas gift to Arizona's needy from Jan Brewer: the cold shoulder

To be fair, calling it a "Christmas gift" may be a misstatement - she's doing this to Arizona's poor since she took office...

The Arizona Republic's Political Insider blog has a post up laying out Governor Jan Brewer's use of discretionary federal stimulus money.  There's an interesting pattern.

From the post (the stuff in parentheses is the Rep's explanation of the purposes of the funding ) -

STATE FISCAL STABILIZATION FUND--USES OF THE GOVERNMENT SERVICES FUND


EXPENDITURE CATEGORIES

Education Reform
Teach for America $2,000,000
Education Information Systems $3,000,000 (computers, to meet requirements of federal program.)
Education Innovation Project $1,636,374 (Race to the Top funding.)

Health Care and Children’s Programs
DHS Community Health $11,600,000 (Restores a budget cut to community-health centers.)
DHS ASH $116,273 (Arizona State Hospital. Money used to repair the security system.)
DES Autism $2,297,824 (Restores a budget cut to this research program.)
DES DD $15,000,000 (Restores a budget cut to developmentally disabled services.)
DES Children’s Services $18,000,000 (Restores a budget cut to this item.)
DES Adoption Services $2,500,000 (Restores a budget cut to this item.)
DES CPS $5,500,000 (Restores a budget cut to Child Protective Services.)

Public Safety
Corrections $50,000,000 (Restores a budget cut to the prisons budget.)
Border Security Enhancement $10,000,000 (grant money to border cities and counties.)
Public Safety Stabilization $10,000,000 (Grants to 140 local governments for public safety.)
Supplemental P.S. Projects $6,545,494 (money to Corrections, Dept. of Public Safety.)
ADOA Public Safety Project $1,700,000 (Coliseum roof repair.)

Innovation, Technology and Economic Development
Commerce Economic Dev. $15,000,000 (Various grants, including $2 million for algae research.)
Commerce Job Training $12,000,000 (Restored funding that had been cut.)
Commerce Jobs Agenda $12,000,000 (Money for a deal-closing fund for business.)
AZ Technology Enhancement (ADOA) $182,079 (Money to help Dept. of Administration track stimulus dollars and other federal funds.)

Arizona County Projects
$4,007,797 (To restore budget cuts to small, rural counties.)

Office of Economic Recovery
$2 million (To administer the stimulus program from the Governor's Office.)

Total: $185,085,841

Interesting.  She allocated $55,014,097 for healthcare and children's programs, but the vast majority of that ($54,897,824, or 99.7%) was to backfill budget cuts to social safety net programs that she had enacted in the first place. 

Something that definitely fits in with her demand of critics of her cutting funding for transplants for AHCCCS patients, saying that people who are so concerned over poor people dying for a lack of funds "should ask the federal government in Washington to send us more money."

Apparently, she thoroughly believes that taking care of the people of Arizona falls outside of the responsibilities/obligations of the governor of Arizona.

She's all in favor of funnelling public money into the pockets of those who can afford to hire professional lobbyists (like those who are her advisers).

But the people who she was elected/hired to advocate for?  They exist only to provide the money that she is funnelling through those lobbyists.

Kyrsten Sinema looking for ways to reinstate funding for lifesaving transplants

From KSAZ (Fox 10 in Phoenix) -

For this story, the phrase, "cutting the fat" slices both ways.
Start with State Representative Kyrsten Sinema, who says liposuction is among billions of dollars in yearly tax exemptions in Arizona.

{snip}

Sinema argues taxing lipo could raise a couple million dollars a year, enough to pay for transplants.


"But I think liposuction is probably not one of those. If we had to close a loophole in order to pay for people like Mr. Felix to get his liver transplant, I think it's a fair thing to do," she said.

32-year-old Francisco Felix lost a chance at a liver transplant due to cuts in AHCCCS, Arizona's Medicaid agency .

Safe to say, Sinema won't be running for Congress in a district that covers any part of Scottsdale, the elective surgery capital of Arizona, any time soon.

Government Transparency Taking An Early Christmas Break In Arizona

When Kirk Adams took over as Speaker of the Arizona House in 2009, he and the rest of the Republicans pledged that Arizona's legislature and its operations would be more transparent than it had been.

After years of dealings conducted in an environment so murky that even legislators had just a few minutes or hours to study legislation before them, it sounded as if *something* was going to improve on West Washington.

Then reality hit, with the crafting of "budgets" behind closed doors without public input and feedback, a massive number of "stealth" legislation pushed via strike-everything amendments or slipped into budget reconciliation bills, and the ramming through of bad bills despite massive public opposition.

That disregard for transparency and the public is continuing this week.

- Tuesday at 10 a.m., the Joint Legislative Income Tax Credit Review Committee will meet in House Hearing Room 3 (HHR3).  They'll be reviewing seven income tax credits.

Six of those will be reviewed in executive session, meaning there won't be any public observation of the proceedings, nor will the public have access to the records of the proceedings.

- Tuesday at 1 p.m., the Joint Committee on Capital Review will meet in Senate Hearing Room 109 (SHR109). 

They'll be considering six items, one of which will be conducted in executive session.  That doesn't sound *too* bad, until you realize that the item that they'll be hiding from public scrutiny is a contract for an "Energy Management System" for the Arizona Department of Corrections.

- Tuesday at 2:30 p.m., also in SHR109, the Joint Legislative Budget Committee will meet.  They'll consider five items on their agenda.

Consideration of four of those items will be cloaked in secrecy.

Those items include a Request for Proposals for 5000 private prison beds and consideration of Correction Health Services Per Diem rates.

An interesting pattern of trying to obscure the machinations of certain public officials, especially in light of the fact of the close ties between Jan Brewer, (Senate President-elect) Russell Pearce, and private prison lobbyists.

While the lack of transparency is deplorable, I actually understand the need for it in this situation -

If the people of Arizona to notice that Brewer and Pearce (and Senseman, Coughlin, et. al.) are sacrificing the lives of other Arizonans by redirecting the $4.5 million that they are "saving" by cutting out transplants from AHCCCS coverage in favor of funnelling the funds (and more) into the pockets of private prison operators, the gravy train on West Washington could be derailed.

Here's hoping...

And the first one out of the gate is...

...State Sen.-elect David Schapira (D-LD17).

The first bill proposal posted on the Arizona Legislature's website for the 50th Session is Schapira's SB1001, relating to transplant services and AHCCCS.

If passed (and I'm under no illusions that it will be), it would remove the exclusions of various transplant services from being paid for by AHCCCS, Arizona's version of Medicaid.

It's too late for Mark Price, one of the first people who were denied a needed transplant, but it may not be too late the other patients who have been endangered by the Governor's quest to destroy Arizona's social safety net.

Later...

Arizona Democrats call on the Governor to restore transplant funding

David Schapira, Senate Democratic leader-elect, Chad Campbell, House Democratic leader-elect, transplant patients, and health care providers called on the Republicans in the legislature and the Governor's office to correct their "mistake"* of cutting AHCCCS funding for transplants.

The press conference video from earlier this week -


12/07/2010 - AHCCCS Transplant Program Press Conference from ACTV on Vimeo.


The press release from the Arizona House Democratic Caucus is here.

* = They call it a mistake, but I think they are being overly charitable toward the Republicans.  I think it was a decision made after a careful calculation, one where the Rs determined that they were less bothered by dead poor people than by corporations paying a marginally higher amount of taxes.

BrewerCare Body Count: 1

From KTAR -

After battling Leukemia for the past year, Mark Price has passed away at a Valley hospital from chemotherapy complications.


Price, whose story had been followed nationally, had found an anonymous donor to privately pay for the more than $200,000 needed for a bone marrow transplant after the new budget cuts for Arizona's Medicaid program eliminated coverage for many types of transplants.

Sad to say, there will probably be many more to come.

My condolences go out to Mr. Price's friends and family...