Kill this bill: Frank Antenori’s TABOR ballot measure

Posted by AzBlueMeanie:

Sen. "Don't make me angry" Frank Antenori wants to destroy Arizona's future before he leaves the Arizona legislature to lose in a GOP primary for Congress.

Antenori is back with his version of the Taxpayer's Bill of Rights (TABOR) bill that Gov. Jan Brewer vetoed last year because it was too reckless and fiscally irresponsible even for her. So Antenori wants to send this terrible idea to the ballot to bypass the Governor's veto. Arizona spending-control effort advances:

A spending-control measure similar to one Gov. Jan Brewer rejected last year could go before voters this fall.

The Senate Appropriations Committee approved Senate Concurrent Resolution 1030 on a 7-6 vote. By taking the matter to voters, GOP sponsors would avoid risking another veto.

The measure would limit state spending in any budget year beginning July 1, 2014, to the amount spent the previous year, adjusted for inflation and population. It would apply to all dollars appropriated by the Legislature, even tuition dollars.

Sponsor Sen. Frank Antenori, R-Tucson, said it would enforce fiscal discipline.

No, you friggin' idiot, it would handcuff the state of Arizona from ever dealing with its structural revenue deficit and the needs of a growing population in the future. It removes all flexiblity in dealing with a state budget that is all too reliant on sales tax revenue and the ups and downs of the economy. It is the height of recklessness and fiscal irresponsibility. Kill this bill!

This is yet another one of those right-wing anti-tax think tank ideas designed to destroy government, like Arizona's Prop. 108 (1992) that enacted a two-thirds super-majority vote required in both chambers of the legislature to ever raise taxes or to ever reduce tax exemptions or credits. Since it was enacted, the only time Arizona has raised taxes is by citizens initiatives.

The anti-tax zealots of our Tea-Publican legislature also have ballot measures designed to reverse those citizen enacted taxes and to make citizens initatives to raise taxes harder in the future.

These radical extremist Tea-Publicans are trying to destroy Arizona. Don't let them get away with it.