Another Headshaker Headline

Posted by AzBlueMeanie:

Today's entry for headshaker headline is an AP article in the East Valley Tribune. State Treasurer Dean Martin: Fall cash-flow crisis averted – East Valley Tribune:

State Treasurer Dean Martin says Arizona will avert a possible cash flow crisis this fall.

Martin says that's possible because Gov. Jan Brewer's budget office plans to smooth out large payments due school districts so that they're paid throughout the entire fiscal year instead of being concentrated at the first half.

Martin recently warned that the state could lack cash to pay all of its bills as early as September. But he said Tuesday there shouldn't be a cash-flow problem unless voters reject two proposed ballot measures in November.

The ballot measures would relax voter-approved spending mandates and divert money designated for early childhood programs [First Things First initiative] and land conservation [trust fund].

This represents a major change in how school districts have operated in the past. If the districts are paid in allotments over time there may not be a reserve on which districts can draw to meet unexpected expenses or emergencies that usually get worked out in budgeting over the course of the school year. This could lead to crisis management budgeting from pay period to pay period.

And the voters will reject the Republican-dominated legislature's attempt to raid the special funds for voter-approved initiatives for First Things First and the land conservation trust fund. The assumption under the "Jan Sham" budget that voters will approve these measures like docile sheep is a false one.

Moreover, the "Jan Sham" budget is currently not balanced – in violation of the Arizona Constitution -even with this false assumption factored in. The JLBC projects a deficit in the FY 2011 budget from $368 million to almost $1 billion. If Republican obstruction continues in the U.S. Senate to block aid to the states totaling some $24 billion, that deficit will only grow.

The day after Election Day on November 2, Arizona will face the cash flow crisis that Dean Martin says has been averted. The deficit may be as high as $3 billion. I guess it comes down to your definition of "Fall."

I have predicted that Jan Brewer and the GOP legislative leadership will call a lame duck Special Session after Election Day to exact their revenge against the citizens of Arizona for rejecting their attempt to raid the special funds for the voter-approved First Things First program and land conservation trust fund. Their draconian budget cuts will come in education, the one source of funds over which the legislature has control. That one-cent sales tax you approved 2-1 in May to save public education in Arizona? It was as illusory as a mirage on a hot humid day in Arizona in July.