The Democrats' proposed budget will (from the press release linked above) -
More details are available at StrongerArizona.com.- Utilize $2.4 billion — the maximum — of the federal stimulus funding available to Arizona in 2010
- Clean up government waste by stopping tax giveaways to big corporations and closing corporate tax loopholes
- Implement smart, responsible cuts across state government, including in our own House of Representatives
- Restore necessary funding to education and middle-class families that makes our economy thrive
...There are many reasons to criticize the Reps' proposal that was leaked on Friday (and trust me, those criticisms are forthcoming :) ), but amid all of the carnage they want to blindly wreak upon the state's education system and public services are some nuggets of head-scratching, "say what?" utter stupidity.
Today, we highlight their proposal to save all of $211,000 by doing away with Arizona Commission on Indian Affairs.
The Commission is dedicated "to strengthening the relationship between Arizona's tribes and urban Indian communties and state government."
Now of course, anyone with any experience watching the Reps in action knows that they don't care about strengthening relationships with anyone who isn't rich, white, and Republican, so this move doesn't come as much of a surprise.
On the other hand, even the Reps have to respect the natural resources that Native American tribes control, even if they don't respect Native Americans as people.
And Native American tribes control 28% of Arizona's land.
Maintaining as many open lines of communications as possible with folks who control that much of the state and its natural resources would seem advisable, but apparently communication is not part of their plans. Given that their budget schemes since the beginning of the session have been hatched behind closed doors and shrouded in secrecy, this isn't shocking.
However, like the rest of the Reps' budget proposal, that doesn't seem to make much long-term sense.
From Monday's press conference -
"It is key to our economic recovery and stability that we invest in education so that our children are competitive in the global economy," said Assistant House Democratic Leader Kyrsten Sinema. "House Democrats' traveled around the state listening to Arizonans' concerns about deep cuts to the state budget and we developed a comprehensive budget plan that will move Arizona forward to a brighter future."Now to find 8 - 10 Republicans with triple-digit IQs and souls.
4 comments:
Even a Republican could pick out the problems with this overview and the plan it purports to describe.
The same group that calls for common sense gun control calling for common sense tax reform. Does that translate into more freedom and higher taxes or less freedom and lower taxes?
Finally it closes with a garnish of back-handed name calling implying that anybody who doesn't support the plan is stupid and evil.
Of course the Democrats do have the advantage of a passively sympathetic media so perhaps it will take more than your everyday Arizona Republican to torpedo the tax "reform" described by this post.
I'll give this much credit to the proposal. It does propose the abolition of the Arizona Commission on Indian Affairs. Now if only someone could teach that same trick to one or more of our 10 federal legislators.
Thane,
I'm shocked, shocked I say, to hear that you disagree with the Dem proposal.
OK, that's just me being sarcastic; what was shocking was how fast you pounced on the post. I hadn't even finished the next post, which was a mostly copy and paste one.
You're getting quicker... :)
Eh, it was mainly hit and run commenting. I may have to put myself on a 24 hour reflection restriction lest I fall prey to the dark side.
And here it is 11 days later and the Democrats won't present their vaunted budget for a vote "since their budget wouldn't pass anyway".
Where did all the fairness and common sense go? Don't they have enough faith in their proposal to sell it to non-Democrats? Or was there less common sense and more higher taxes and continued exessive government spending as usual than was alleged?
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