Posted by AzBlueMeanie:
The only fact check of the governor debate I have found to date is by Rhonda Bodfield at the Arizona Daily Star. Brewer-Goddard debate: Here's who had the facts. I will use some of what she has done as a starting point and add facts I believe are relevant that Bodfield cannot provide you with the word/column space limitations at the Star and her editorial constraints.
JOBS
In her inaugural address in January 2009, Jan Brewer announced "the legislative leadership, my transition team and I are not sitting idle while the new government in Washington plans another trillion dollars in deficit spending. No, we are planning a massive stimulus package of our own, to make Arizona the most economically vibrant place in the world." http://azgovernor.gov/dms/upload/Jan%20Brewer%20Inaugural%20Address%201-21-09.pdf.
No "stimulus package" was ever proposed by Gov. Brewer nor enacted by the Republican leadership of the Legislature. It never happened.
In her State of the State Address in January 2010, Jan Brewer announced that "I have created the Governor's Commerce Advisory Council. Working with other Arizona business leaders, they will transform the Department of Commerce into an engine for job creation. Finally, I will convene a summit of leading CEOs of national and international companies in the near future to discuss job creation opportunities in Arizona." Arizona State of the State Address 2010.
However, it was not until May 27, 2010 that Jan Brewer announced the Commission on Privatization and Efficiency (COPE), which was established in January of this year and announced as part of Governor Brewer’s State of the State Address. http://azgovernor.gov/dms/upload/PR_052710_BrewerAnnouncesCOPECommission.pdf. "The commission’s initial report (due July 30, 2010) will focus on short term recommendations, while the final report (due December 31, 2010) will propose structural changes to position the state for long-term stability."
It was not until June 29, 2010 that Jan Brewer, by Executive Order, established the Arizona Commerce Authority, unveiled its board of Arizona C-Level Executives, and committed $10 million to advance Arizona’s economy through its approach to economic development. The move starts the transition of the old Arizona Department of Commerce into the new, quasi-public Arizona Commerce Authority. http://azgovernor.gov/dms/upload/PR_062910_BrewerEstablishesNewAZCommerceAuthority.pdf
Sports and real-estate mogul Jerry Colangelo will co-chair the Arizona Commerce Authority with Governor Brewer. Colengelo's privately owned sports empire is heavily subsidized by taxpayer dollars for stadiums and related expenditures, not exactly a business model most Arizonans would find acceptable.
As Terry Goddard pointed out during the debate, the first meeting of the Arizona Commerce Authority is not scheduled until September 23, 2010. Colangelo to co-chair Arizona Commerce Authority. Terry Goddard's point was that Jan Brewer lacked any sense of urgency and failed to aggressively deal with Arizona's unemployment crisis. The facts support his point.
Goddard several times noted that Arizona's economy has lost 128,000 jobs since Brewer took office in January 2009[.] According to U.S. Department of Labor statistics, the job loss is actually higher: 143,000 jobs down since the start of 2009. Brewer-Goddard debate: Here's who had the facts.
Arizona's unemployment rate of nearly 10 percent doesn't come close to showing the full picture of just how tough the state's job market has become. Arizona's official unemployment rate not the full picture:
Arizona's official unemployment rate, the percentage of the labor force actively looking for work, was 9.6 percent for July. The official rate is adjusted for local factors but is based on a federal survey. That survey offers other ways to characterize unemployment:
• U-3 reflects how many people surveyed are unemployed and actively seeking work. It's the basis for the state's official rate.
• U-6 is a broader measure. It counts people actively looking for work, but adds those who gave up looking in the past year and part-timers who can't find full-time work.
| U-3 | U-6 | |
| 2010* | 10.8% | 18.5% |
| 2009 | 10% | 18.1% |
| 2008 | 5.9% | 10.7% |
| 2007 | 3.9% | 7.4% |
* Figures are a 12-month average ending June 2010. Source: U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics
Arizona's unemployment rate is at Depression level unemployment. The unemployment numbers reflect an Arizona economy overly dependent upon real estate development and construction of new homes and businesses. With the collapse of the real estate bubble beginning in 2006, Arizona's principal economic driver collapsed. With thousands of foreclosed and abandoned homes in surplus inventory, it is not going to come back any time soon. "Arizona has lost so many jobs in the recession that it may take another four to six years for the state to return to the job levels it reported at the beginning of 2008," according to economists in a report released by the Arizona Department of Commerce in August. Arizona jobs forecast predicts rebound at mid-decade.
Jan Brewer badgered Terry Goddard during and after the debate with her attack line "where's your plan, Terry?" and "he doesn't have a plan." Jan Brewer is wrong. The Goddard "Emergency Job Recovery and Economic Development Plan" includes 11 Initiative Categories, each followed by a menu of specific plans designed to stimulate the growth of Arizona’s economy, and it has been posted on his campaign web site for weeks. http://www.terrygoddard.com/uploads/2013/original/Jobs_and_Economic_Recovery_Plan.pdf.
Jan Brewer's attack point that "Terry Goddard has no plan" is false and she knows it. The point that is debatable is whether Goddard's plan can generate 300,000 new jobs, which he said was derived from consultations with economists and business leaders. We will never know unless his plan is actually implemented.
Jan Brewer claimed that under her administration she's brought thousands of jobs into Arizona and millions in capital assets. Brewer-Goddard debate: Here's who had the facts:
Her staff has circulated a list of 33 projects that have come to the state since the beginning of 2009, bringing a total of more than 7,200 jobs and more than $2.8 billion in investments.
On the list: Sargent Aerospace and Defense, which is pegged for 175 new jobs in Marana, with $15 million in investments. The company announced in June that it plans to double the size of its operation here.
Brewer's role? Lisa Short, Sargent's director of strategic planning, credited the town of Marana and Tucson Regional Economic Opportunities with making sure the company wasn't lured away by California or Florida. Marana offered to help speed up development and provide tax credits for money spent on the construction. She did say the Commerce Department is helping the company explore state tax credits as well.
She said she couldn't commit to the 175 jobs listed on the chart, saying the growth is contingent in part on the economy.
Reporters should post the list and follow up with each of the companies on the list to verify whether or not the governor's office has played any direct role in attracting those businesses. From this one example, I suspect that there are suprious claims of direct involvement to pad the numbers.
BUDGET
Jan Brewer adamently and vociferously insisted that she has balanced the state budget. Regular readers of this blog know that Brewer was telling a bald-face lie. The "Jan Sham Budget" is not now nor has it ever been balanced. The Accidental Governor signs the Jan Sham Budget. The facts are that Jan Brewer and the current Republican-dominated legislature have failed to produce a balanced budget before the fiscal year beginning July 1 in each of the past two years as required by the Arizona Constitution. This is the first time in Arizona history that a governor and legislature have failed to meet their constitutionally prescribed duty.
Terry Goddard several times insisted Brewer did not meet her constitutional mandate to balance the state budget. Brewer-Goddard debate: Here's who had the facts:
On the first point, it was never really balanced.
The budget assumes that voters will approve two fund sweeps in November. If they refuse to hand over funds for early-childhood programs and land conservation, the budget will be out of whack by $469 million.
The bigger problem is the state still faces an ongoing structural deficit since it relied on a number of one-time fixes, from delaying education payments to the lease-back of state buildings. The difference between what the state takes in and what it spends is projected at $1.7 billion.
As far as the role of the federal government, the August federal-aid package funded health-care costs at a lower level than budget analysts had predicted. The aid package provided $236 million, but the full cost is closer to $394 million.
Arizona's twin embarassments, Sens. John McCain and in particular Jon Kyl, along with every Republican but the mythical moderates from Maine in the U.S. Senate were responsible for reducing the size of the federal-aid package, and they would have killed it entirely but for Sens. Collins and Snowe. That would really have "blown a hole" in Arizona's budget. Let's place the blame where blame is due, not use a generic "federal government" bugaboo.
Jan Brewer has demanded that Terry Goddard produce his budget proposal. As noted above, this would require two speculative budget proposals, one based upon voters rescinding First Things First and Growing Smarter to allow the legislature to raid the special funds, and one in which the voters decide to keep these programs protected from legislative raids (the most likely scenario).
There is also the problem that Arizona's sales tax revenues are continuing to fail to meet revenue projections, further putting the budget out of balance. Sales taxes down 2.8% on state level (sales-tax collections were down 2.8 percent in July compared with the same month last year, new figures from the Arizona Department of Revenue).
It is a bit hypocrital coming from Jan Brewer to demand a budget plan when Brewer refused to submit a budget plan of her own in 2009 after she succeeded to the governorship (to the consternation of Republican legislative leaders), and the one budget plan that she did submit is the "Jan Sham Budget" that is not balanced as required by the Arizona Constitution.
TAXES
Jan Brewer took credit for the one-half cent sales tax, Prop. 100 passed by voters in May, ostensibly to be used only for public education and public safety. Terry Goddard rightly responded that this is a bit like claiming you saved someone from drowning after you pushed them into the pool. After $1.2 billion dollars in cuts to education in the Jan Sham Budget, it was an extortion to "save" public education, and voters are cognizant of this fact.
There was little more discussion than this about taxes. Both candidates referenced tax reform on their agenda without elaborating.
Jan Brewer made a bargain earlier this year to get Prop. 100 out of the legislature with little formal opposition to the tax during the special election. House Speaker Kirk Adams' corporate welfare tax giveaway plan (HB2250) will be revived shortly after Election Day.
Republicans will reintroduce Adams' corporate welfare tax giveaway plan, reduce the tax assessment ratio for industrial and commercial property taxes, and repeal the school equalization property tax. The one-half cent sales tax approved by voters in May, ostensibly to be used only for the purpose of public education and public safety, goes into the general fund and is not protected from the legislature shifting around funds to pay for these corporate welfare tax cuts and to stick you with the bill in higher local property taxes. Given the structural deficit in the budget, education will again suffer further cuts.
HEALTH CARE
Earlier this year the Republican-dominated legislature tried to slash 310,000 people from AHCCCS and to become the first and only state in the country to end participation in SCHIP (Kids-Care) in Arizona. Passage of the Affordable Care Act forced the state of Arizona to restore funding to these programs to continue to receive federal funding under "maintenance of effort" requirements.
Jan Brewer ordered the state of Arizona to sue the federal government to challenge the Affordable Care Act ("ObamaCare" in right-wing parlance). During the debate, Jan Brewer stated her opposition to the federal requirements, saying the state can't afford it, since it's already having a hard time meeting its obligations under its Medicaid program. Brewer-Goddard debate: Here's who had the facts:
Goddard said the federal health-care overhaul law will save the state money over time.
Who's right hinges in part on how you look at a report produced by the Joint Legislative Budget Committee on the long-term impacts of the new law.
The report, using the fiscal 2010 budget, estimated $2.3 billion in savings over the next decade, in large part because the federal government ratchets up its assistance to offset costs to the states over time, to help them comply with expanding coverage to 133 percent of federal poverty level ($29,300 for a family of four.)
But relative to the fiscal 2011 budget base – which includes spending for Kids-Care and complying with higher eligibility approved by voters in 2000 [First Things First] - the state will pay an additional $9.7 billion. Add in the $2.3 billion in savings and the state is still on the hook for $7.4 billion in additional costs [over the next decade].
Much of this is speculative as there are certain to be substantial changes to the Affordable Care Act and federal funding over the next decade. No one can say with any certainty.
BOYCOTT
This is Jan Brewer's latest attack ad, trying to tie Terry Goddard and other Democrats to two unions supporting a boycott of Arizona over SB 1070 by playing "six degrees of Kevin Bacon," or otherwise known as "guilt by association" – a favorite weapon of all demagogues. Because Democrats are endorsed by the unions and take campaign donations from the unions, then by association, they support the boycotts. Wrong.
Only Rep. Raúl Grijalva supported the boycott effort early on, before the federal courts took up the legal challenge to SB 1070, and he has since rescinded his support of the boycott. Democrats, including Terry Goddard, rejected the boycott in early May. Arizona Democratic Party: "Don't boycott Arizona – boycott Brewer and Republicans".
Terry Goddard sent a letter to Rep. Raúl Grijalva dated July 7, 2010, asking him to end his support for the boycott. Terry Goddard for Governor – Arizona – Attorney General Goddard Asks Congressman Grijalva to End Calls for Arizona Boycott. Whether his letter played any role in the Congressman changing his position is irrelevant.
Jan Brewer's point was that Terry Goddard supports the boycott. Goddard does not support the boycott, and never has. Brewer's false accusation is an attempt to smear Goddard by using the demagoue's favorite weapon of guilt by association.
This speaks more to Jan Brewer's lack of honesty and moral character.
I previously debunked Jan Brewer's attempt to compress the job losses in Arizona resulting from the Bush Great Recession, which officially began in December 2007 (the housing bubble in Arizona began bursting in 2006), to the shorter time frame after she signed SB 1070 in late April 2010, to blame Arizona's poor economy on the boycott. Jan Brewer flees from the media post-debate to avoid questions.