Economists Marshall Vest and Gerald Swanson on Arizona’s Budget Crisis

Posted by Michael Bryan

Must see TV! Arizona Illustrated made an hour-long feature on Arizona's economic crisis with two of Arizona's pre-eminent economists, Professors Marshall Vest and Gerald Swanson of the Eller School of Business of the UofA.

The take-away is that cuts to the tax base over the last 15 years in todays dollars equal about 2.8 billion dollars annually – almost exactly the budget hole we're in. Both Vest and Swanson believe that Arizona needs more revenue, not more cuts and that our taxes are already among the lowest in the nation and additional taxes would not discourage economic growth.

There is a lot more excellent discussion, so if you are going to suffer through any hour of television on economics this year, make it this program.