It is budget time at the State Capitol and Democrats have unveiled the fiscal priorities they want the State Legislature to consider in negotiations in the coming weeks.
Called Restore, Recover, and Rebuild, the Democratic program, (please read the full proposal by clicking the below link,) is a people’s first one that is geared to utilize state funding and its projected surpluses toward helping Arizonans and human infrastructure sectors hardest hit by the pandemic and moving the Grand Canyon State and its residents into the future.
FINAL FY22 Joint House-Senate Dem Budget Proposal
Among the People’s First provisions Democrats call for in the Fiscal Year 2022 budget are:
- Three Billion dollars towards education programs. These monies would go toward many needed priorities including teacher raises, restoring the funding gap to public schools that were appropriated on the distance learning scale, funding the school’s facilities board, and allocating proceeds to state and county-run universities and community colleges.
- One billion dollars in COVID recovery programs. This would include funding to expand Kidscare and Food Stamp Programs. It would also give money to state-located community health care centers, housing support grants, replenishing the housing trust fund, helping the disabled, assisting veterans in receiving counseling services, and pregnant women on AHCCCS so they could receive dental care.
- Approximately $500 million toward infrastructure. Some of the monies would go toward broadband expansion, road construction on the Hopi Nation, and restoring funding to the Highway Trust Fund.
- $500 million toward state unemployment reform which would include raising the weekly allotment from a measly $240 a week. This would be good timing since Governor Ducey, following the pack of fellow reactionaries, has decided to stop allocating extra federal unemployment relief by July 10, 2021. Please click here to read the legitimate concerns expressed by the Arizona Center for Economic Progress which point out that Ducey will use American Rescue Recovery Funds that could go toward other needed priorities to give workers back to work bonuses ($2000 for full-time and $1000 for part-time) along with child care and community college assistance (which to be fair is a sound idea especially considering parents have had to stay home to care for their children) on a first-come and first-served basis (which could prove problematic for the people that apply after the funds dry out.)
- Small Business Assistance by way of grants and payer-friendly loans.
Commenting on the Democratic Budget, House Democratic Leader Reginald Bolding wrote:
“Arizona remains one of the fastest-growing states in the nation and one of the hardest hit by the COVID-19 pandemic. We have the resources to help get working families back on their feet, help our students and teachers thrive as schools recover, and re-set our economy toward sustainable growth. This is not the time for another massive, irresponsible, and unsustainable tax giveaway for the wealthy. Our constituents are calling out for help, not tax cuts for an elite few, which moves that help farther out of reach. We invite Governor Ducey, the Speaker and Senate President, and all our Republican colleagues who want a brighter future for our state to work with us on turning these ideas into policy.”
Senate Democratic Leader Rebecca Rios relayed:
“The COVID-19 pandemic has laid bare all of our social inequities and misplaced priorities. Even now as Arizona families and small businesses still struggle with the pandemic, our colleagues on the other side of the aisle aren’t talking about investing in resources and programs to support them. They’re talking about yet another massive tax cut. Arizona doesn’t need more tax cuts that will only help corporations and the wealthiest. Arizona needs to fund COVID recovery for families and small businesses and invest in services and programs that benefit all Arizonans. Legislative Democrats are ready with a budget that invests in our schools, streamlines our ineffective unemployment insurance program, fixes inaccessible housing assistance programs, and helps small businesses stay afloat until our economy stabilizes. We’re ready with immediate common-sense solutions to help Arizonans and we hope our colleagues join us in a budget that revitalizes Arizona.”
Rios and Bolding are right.
The rich do not need more tax cuts in any form.
Now is the time to restore, recover, and rebuild.
Now is the time to put the people of Arizona and the future of the Grand Canyon State first.
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