AZ GOP’s Big Budget Lie

By Michael Bryan

All you hear recently from the State Capital is how they "balanced the budget for the first time in years". The GOP leadership claims to have closed the budget deficit.

Bullshit.

Their budget relies on over $200 million in cuts to the state Medicare program (AHCCCS) which are blatantly unconstitutional under Arizona's constitution as amended by the Voter Protection Act of 1998, because it undermines the Medicare eligibility requirements set by voters in 2000's Prop 204.

And Brewer is getting sued over it. Here's the ACLPI filing in full. Frankly, I have a hard time imagining the attorneys at the AG's office will be able to defend the budget cuts without violating their duty not to present baseless legal arguments to the courts.

Here's the crux of the GOP's argument: Prop 204 says that the state must use the State's share of the tobacco settlement funds to pay for Medicare for people up to %100 of the Federal poverty level and, if that proved insufficient, funding “shall be supplemented by any other available sources including legislative appropriations and federal monies.” But Jan and the Gang decided they had other priorities this year (including massive tax cuts for the wealthy), so they cut eligibility to below 100% of Federal poverty to 'balance' the budget, ignoring Prop 204 and simply claiming that the entire budget is spoken for and thus there are no "other available sources", so they don't have to fund Prop 204's requirements.

This is so absurd that any lawyer even making the argument in a court of law should be disciplined. Unfortunately, politicians aren't held to any standards of candor, but the attorneys in the AG's office who will be called on the defend the State are: poor bastards. I really feel bad for whomever is assigned this dog.

Everyone recognized at the time Prop 204 was passed that if the tobacco settlement funds were insufficient to fund the expansion of AHCCCS, the state general fund would be on the hook for the difference: it was the main argument advanced by Prop 204's opponents, many of whom are now arguing that the general fund doesn't have to fund the expanded eligibility. Hypocrites.

This demonstration of the voter's ability to boss the legislature around in allocating the budget really pissed some folks off. So they did something about it. The legislature referred to the ballot the Revenue Source Rule of 2004 to put voters back in their place. RSR requires any expenditures pursuant to voter initiative to specifically identify a funding source. Foolishly perhaps, voters approved it. Because Prop 204 (passed in 2000) was enacted prior to the Revenue Source Rule, Proposition 204 is not required to identify a revenue source for funding the financial obligations it created, and it doesn't. The legislature just has to suck it up and fund the expansion out of the general fund whether they like it or not.

For the GOP leadership to now claim that they don't have to allocate funds for citizens entitled to coverage under Prop 204 is simply rewriting history to suit themselves. Even Governor Brewer clearly recognized the legislature's obligation in her 2010 state of the State address, saying that “voters must be asked to reconsider the Proposition 204 expansion.”  She knew then, and knows now, as does every member of the legislature who voted this year's budget that the legislature has no power to unilaterally reduce Medicare eligibility below %100 of Federal poverty because of Prop 204.

It is just another example of this radical right-winger legislative majority committing legislative malpractice to gimmick up a 'balanced' budget in order to give away massive tax cuts during a fiscal melt-down, and to pander to the worst of their base. Their arguments are simply absurd, and like the absurdity of SB1070 that they continue to defend in face of universal judicial rebuke, they courts will absolutely over-rule their scheme. 

When that happens (and it will happen) there will suddenly re-appear a $200 million hole in Arizona's budget. 

What will Jan and Gang do then? Look for some other poor, powerless, or marginalized group to 'balance' the budget on the backs of, no doubt. The saddest thing is that hardly anyone is paying any damn attention, and theAZ GOP will likely never pay any electoral price for their sheer humbuggery.