‘Survivor – GOP Presidential Primary’ : Whistling Dixie

January 11, 2012

Posted by AzBlueMeanie: There were no surprises in the New Hampshire primary on Tuesday night, with the possible exception that the winnowing of the field that typically occurs after the primary did not occur. Everyone is moving on to South Carolina.  This is the deleterious effect of Citizens United v. FEC and the demon Super-PACs it … Read more

The Birther bill is baaack

January 11, 2012

Posted by AzBlueMeanie: The Birther bill is baaack, this time by Rep. Carl Seel who successfully shepherded a Birther bill through our Tea-Publican legislature last year. I pick on Seel, but his Birther bill, House Bill 2177, passed by a unanimous vote from all Tea-Publicans in the House and a unanimous vote from all Tea-Publicans in … Read more

Atomic Al Melvin is baaack

January 10, 2012

by David Safier Atomic Al Melvin has worked on his pitch to sell a nuclear waste dump to Arizonans. He’s always claimed it’s all about funding education. Nukes for schools. But now he’s got a name for it: The Arizona Energy-Education Fund. [Note: the story is in the Capitol Times, a subscription only website.] No … Read more

The GOP still in search of the perfect ‘Not-the-Romney’ candidate

January 10, 2012

Posted by AzBlueMeanie: The corporate media villagers and Beltway bloviators will all say tonight that, should Willard "Mittens" Romney win in New Hampshire as expected, it will be an historical first for a GOP candidate to win both the Iowa Caucus and the New Hampshire primary ("historical" is a relative term: it's only since 1976). … Read more

Gov. Jan Brewer’s rhetoric vs. reality

January 10, 2012

Posted by AzBlueMeanie: In a follow-up to my previous post, the Arizona Democratic Party has put together a convenient guide to Gov. Jan Brewer's rhetoric vs. reality in this email: I’m sure by now you’ve seen the news coverage and heard the takeaways from Governor Brewer’s State of the State address on Monday. But here’s the thing, many … Read more

State of the State Address: Through the Looking Glass

January 10, 2012

Posted by AzBlueMeanie:

The Red Queen, Gov. Jan Brewer, delivered a State of the State Address on Monday that can fairly be described as delusional and entirely detached from reality. We really have gone through the looking glass, folks.

Best headline regarding Brewer's Address goes to the Phoenix New Times: Jan Brewer's Back Gets Self-Inflicted Pat-Down During Gov's Third State of the State Address.

Runner up for unintentionally funny headline goes to The Arizona Guardian: Gov. Brewer: 'Arizona has been saved'.

That's right, "Arizona has been saved" from the economic hardships of a few years ago because she "took the helm of a ship I cherished – but it was a ship that was sinking, weighed down by over-spending and expanding bureaucracy – and – quite simply – poor navigation."

In her State of the State Address, Brewer said Arizona is on the mend. The state budget is balanced and more money is flowing into the treasury than paid out for services. "Together, just like last year, let's continue to lower taxes, cut regulation and tell all employers that Arizona means business,'' the governor said. "We need to make Arizona the free-market beacon to the nation and the world where you have the opportunity to prosper.''

In other words, the Guv wants to double-down on the entirely discredited and disproved faith based supply-side "trickle down" GOP economic policies that caused our problem in the first place. Like tinkerbell, "just clap your hands and believe!"

Arizona has a structural revenue deficit, the result of 20 years worth of GOP tax cuts. The only reason the state budget is balanced at present is because of the temporary one-cent sales tax increase approved by voters in May 2010, and a state and national economy slowly coming back from the depths of the Bush Great Recession due to Obama's National Recovery Act and other economic stimulus spending — you do remember the federal stimulus aid to the states that staunched the bleeding when you took that federal bailout money, don't you Guv?

And let's not forget what you sacrificed on the altar of GOP austerity — draconian budget cuts to education and health care, and raiding revenue sharing funds to cities and counties and HURF funds for highway construction, among other funds (some since struck down as unconstitutional by the Arizona Supreme Court).

Arizona has not "been saved" by the magnificent benevolence of our Red Queen.

Rather, we stand on the precipice of another fiscal train wreck in 2013. The Guv said in her Address that she will allow the temporary sales tax to expire in May 2013. Buh-bye new revenue. Last week she said that she would not restore budget cuts to education — something she promised the temporary sales tax was intended to do if voters would only approve it, remember that? I told you at the time she was lying.

That same year the corporate welfare tax giveaway plan passed by the legislature last year will begin to phase in, worsening our structural revenue deficit. It will also result in the shifting of the corporate tax burden to residential homeowners as counties will have to increase property taxes just to maintain current levels of service. The state lege will say, "we didn't raise your taxes, your board of supervisors did" — to which the voters should respond to this legislative legerdemain with "Bullshit! We know who is responsible."

The Guv wants to dig this structural revenue deficit hole even deeper with yet another round of tax cuts to corporations on the flawed theory that corporations decide to relocate primarily based upon taxes. This is a "race to the bottom" theory. Eventually, the state would have to zero out corporate taxes or even offer negative tax rates (corporate welfare subsidies) to remain competitive with other states and other countries to attract corporations to Arizona. And that tax burden will be shifted to individual taxpayers — that would be you, many of you small business owners who are not corporations.

And keep in mind that tax cuts effectively become permanent and cannot be reversed thanks to Arizona's two-thirds super-majority requirement for raising taxes. The true believers in supply-side "trickle down" will never allow a tax increase. It will take a citizens initiative to repeal the two-thirds super-majority requirement to restore simple majority rule and tax sanity to Arizona.

Every company with which I have worked over the years has not placed tax policy very high on its list of priorities for relocation. Always first on the list is a skilled work force (something Arizona lacks), a superior education system, especially the college and university system (Arizona is woefully inadequate), transporation and infrastructure, i.e., air and rail service, interstate highways, electrical and internet grids, etc. (Arizona has neglected its infrastructure), and "lifestyle" and "cultural" amenities available to its workforce. Let's just say that Jan Brewer's anti-immigrant demagoguery over SB 1070 has given Arizona the reputation of being a regressive backwater that is not conducive to companies wanting to relocate to Arizona. Jan Brewer's right-wing ideological agenda does not address any of these factors in a positive and constructive manner.

Check out Jan Brewer's Roadmap to Arizona's Ruin, er, "The Four Cornerstones of Reform: The Centennial Edition," here. http://azgovernor.gov/dms/upload/PR_010912_2012FourCornerReformCentEdition.pdf

You can read the State of the State Address below the fold, courtesy of the Phoenix New Times.