Raise taxes! Don’t cut schools! Or not.

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by David Safier
The Accidental Guv — I stopped using that term for awhile, but it's appropriate once again — has backed down from her earlier stands on tax hikes and education.

Brewer, circa March, 2009:

In a courageous speech that angered some of her Republican compatriots in the state Legislature, Gov. Jan Brewer laid out a plan that would include a temporary tax increase of $1 billion to help solve Arizona's budget crisis.

[snip]

"We cannot place all of the burden on our children and their schools. We cannot place all of the burden on the parents that need day care so they can go to work and stay off welfare. We cannot leave the sick on the streets alone to fend for themselves only to overload our hospitals and our jails."

Ah, those good old, courageous days of yesteryear — or yestermonth. Looks like two months in political-courage years is the equivalent of a decade in human years.

Today:

Gov. Jan Brewer is backing away from her demand that a new state budget include a temporary tax hike or face certain veto.

[snip]

[The Republican budget] proposal includes sharp cuts to K-12 education, larger than the ones imposed just three months ago to balance the current year's budget. Brewer, who two months ago said she did not want the education system "decimated," said Wednesday she is open to further reductions.

I guess, when you stumble into a job by accident, you should be expected to fumble and stumble around until you finally figure out who you're supposed to be listening to.

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