Doug Ducey

Safe Park Tucson

A Walk through Safe Park (video)

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Safe Park Tucson
Safe Park Associate Director Maggie Downey stands at the door to the Safe Park “office”. The office has referral forms for city services, lists of bathrooms the homeless can use during the day, bus schedules and more.

Safe Park– the homeless camp located on the sidewalks of downtown Tucson– has been a political hot potato since a Tucson District Court ruled the sidewalk protest was protected speech in December 2014. With that ruling, Safe Park grew and coffin-like boxes called “dream pods” started rolling in–much to the dismay of city and county leaders and local businesses.

Debates raged– in the Arizona Daily Star, on Facebook, on the streets, and in multiple Tucson Mayor and Council meetings– about the validity Safe Park as a “protest”, the moral character of the primary leader, the overarching problem of homelessness, and what the city could or should do about the situation. Park residents and the City Council have been in negotiations to move Safe Park from the sidewalks of the Rio Nuevo business district to another a vacant lot within a mile of downtown, where this homeless community could camp and have access to bathrooms and showers. Safe Park Director and long-time homeless spokesperson, Jon McClane had asked for a homeless camp in each ward, but said that they were willing to move if the city could find a spot not far from downtown.

As the search for a suitable city-owned lot continued, recent developments  have changed the political landscape. Police conducted a sting drug operation near Veinte de Agosto Park and arrested McClane and others on charges of possession of marijuana and possession for sale. The Arizona Daily Star. continued its character assassination against McClain, dredging up stories about his children and painting him as a charismatic opportunist, rather than a crusader. The US District Court Judge, who initially called Safe Park protected speech, issued a clarification that allows the city to remove the dream pods and tents. The latest news is that Safe Park dream pods and tents must be removed by Friday, March 13.

This blog post isn’t about the ongoing homeless controversy or the integrity of any of the leaders. It’s about the people I met at Safe Park last Thursday night.

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Arizona Senate

AZ Budget Solution: Grow the Economy, Don’t Starve It (video)

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Arizona Senate
Arizona Senate Chambers

Governor Doug Ducey and Republican leadership in the Legislature made headlines and sparked street protests this week when they tried to ram through a starvation budget that was negotiated in secret.

The wrong-headed budget starved universities with $104 million-dollar in cuts;  it stole even more money from K-12 education with a $98 million hit this year and another $157 million hit in the next year; just for fun, it cut an additional $8-15 from TUSD; it crippled job training with $30 million in cuts; it completely defunded community colleges in Pima, Pinal, and Maricopa Counties; it cut provider rates for people who provide medical care to Medicaid/AHCCCS patients by $127 million (which would result in the loss of $588 million of federal funds). And these are just the highlights.

This severe austerity budget will do nothing to grow the economy. It will starve the economy by taking more than a billion dollars out. This means more lay-offs, more bankruptcies, more business failures, more home foreclosures, more poverty, people on on public assistance, more homelessness, more crime, more incarceration, and more people and businesses leaving our state.

When Republicans talk about budgeting, they often give folksy example of a family sitting around the kitchen table to work out the budget and decide together how they are going to tighten their belts and make ends meet. Didn’t anyone at the kitchen table ever say, “Paw, I could get another job to bring in more money”?

Earlier this year, the media speculated how Ducey could possibly keep his campaign promise of balancing the budget without raising taxes and at the same time allow hundreds of millions of dollars in unaffordable planned corporate tax cuts (passed during the Brewer era) to go forward. (Besides all that, there is the court order that said the Legislature unlawfully cut Arizona school funding and should pay back $317 million in this budget and $1.6 billion in the future.)

Earlier this year, Ducey famously said, just because we don’t have enough money, doesn’t mean we need to raise revenue. Why not? Putting money into the economy grows it; taking money out, starves it. Arizona has options besides austerity. We can raise revenue and pay for the services we want: 1) legalize marijuana; 2) establish a public bank; 3) stop implementation of unaffordable tax cuts for out-of-state corporations; 4) invest in innovation.

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public education

Tucsonans Take to the Streets to Protest Ducey/GOP Budget

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public education
Approximately 100 Tucsonans rallied against massive cuts to education proposed by Governor Doug Ducey and the #AZGOP.

More than 1000 people rallied at the Arizona Capitol to protest cuts to education on Thursday. The Phoenix rally spawned a similar protest in Tucson, where 100 people protested millions of dollars in cuts to K-12 education, $104 million in cuts to universities, and elimination of funding for Pima Community College and other community colleges in Pinal and Maricopa County.

Tucson education rally
Governor Ducey had proposed increasing prison beds and funding, while cutting education. Protesters took issue with that short-sighted idea.

ICYMI, Governor Doug Ducey and Republicans in the Arizona Legislature cooked up a terrible budget deal in secret, announced it on Wednesday, and tried to ram it through both houses before the public knew what hit them (literally). Thanks to Facebook, Twitter, and the blogs– Arizonans quickly organized against Ducey’s budget plan.

You’ll remember that Ducey and the Legislature are facing a budget deficit of nearly half a billion dollars this year and over $1 billion next year, AND, thanks to Tooth Fairy Math, they believe that that can balance the budget, give millions of dollars in corporate tax cuts, and do nothing to raise revenue (to pay down the deficit or to make the tax cuts seem less ridiculous affordable.)

Parents, teachers, school board members, public education supporters, and students from 5 to 25 years old showed up in force in the two cities to tell the governor that balancing the state budget– yet again— on the backs of students and families is unacceptable. At this time, Ducey doesn’t have the votes in either chamber of the Legislature to pass his budget. Images from the Tucson rally after the jump.

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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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“School Choice” is a giant honking scam

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Crossposted from DemocraticDiva.com

school choice

As Arizona continues to show up at the bottom of rankings in education funding, defenders of the current policies continue to insist that we’re doing super duper well in School Choice!TM

School Choice!TM is predicated on the supposition that all parents – all of them! – have an endless abundance of time and resources to devote to picking the best possible school for each of their children, from a plethora of options including their local public, magnet public, brick-and-mortar charters, online charters, private schools, and homeschooling. This is not to mention all the money your family needs to pay for tuition, transportation, uniforms, whatever is required to get your child into that best school. If you don’t have that money, then School Choice!TM hasn’t failed you, you have failed it, obvs.

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