arizona budget

Impressive response by Arizona Business Leaders™ to the terrible budget

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Crossposted from DemocraticDiva.com

scott walker az chamber of commercePhoto: AZ Chamber of Commerce and Industry announcement

By “impressive”, of course, I mean “pathetic”. The GOP led AZ Legislature dropped a turd of a budget in the middle of Friday night/Saturday morning that guts (among other things) university and community college funding and – because this is the cruelest session toward poor people that I’ve seen since I moved here in 1997 – cuts millions in Medicaid assistance, limits Temporary Assistance to Needy Families to an arbitrary lifetime cap of one year, and fails to fund child abuse and neglect prevention.

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Who must “live within means” in Arizona depends greatly upon their importance to Governor Ducey

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Crossposted from DemocraticDiva.com

Frowny Ducey

The budget deal struck by Governor Doug Ducey and GOP legislators (with no input from Democrats, apparently) cuts millions from colleges and health care providers, while giving what could pass for an “increase” to K-12 education if you squint hard (and pretend the state will never have to restore the $317 million in funding as they were ordered by the court). Senate Minority Leader Katie Hobbs (D-Central Phoenix), in no exaggeration, called it a “bad, bad budget” and possibly “the worst budget ever” on Twitter Wednesday.

Quoth Governor Ducey:

“Before you can have prosperity, everyone needs to live within their means,” Ducey told The Arizona Republic. “This idea of spending money that you don’t have is just irresponsible. So when you’re talking about opportunity for all, you want to provide that across the board for our citizens. This budget reflects our values as Arizonans — it protects the Department of Child Safety, it protects the most vulnerable. And we’re asking some folks to tighten their belt.”

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Republican lawmakers really don’t like hearing the truth

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Crossposted from DemocraticDiva.com

When you think of lobbyists in Arizona you’re bound to think of people in expensive shoes and haircuts peddling bills handwritten for the corporations that pay them. It’s true of a lot of them but there are also some valiant souls who go to the Capitol regularly to plead on behalf of the people in our state who don’t have piles of cash to influence legislators. One such person is Kristin Gwinn, executive director of Protecting Arizona’s Families Coalition (PAFCO), who testified before a Senate committee on Monday about the how their proposed budget does not come close to meeting the needs of abused and vulnerable children. She pulled no punches:

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