The Farley Report: June 1, 2010

Posted  by AzBlueMeanie:

Time once again for the Farley Report, from Rep. Steve Farley (D-LD28):

I hope your summer is off to a great start, despite the fire and brimstones the Governor and the Republican Legislature have thrown our way.

I have been able to spend a whole lot of time walking door to door in the district, and the people I have met are outraged at the way Jan Brewer and Republican leaders have been misleading our state. The number-one worry I hear from people is that our new one-cent sales tax will not be spent the way they want it spent — on education and public safety.

The truth is, that fear is well-grounded — unless Arizona voters decide in November that 44 years of Republican mis-leadership is enough.

Yes, legislative Republicans are still pushing for a special session at some unspecified date in the near future to enact their coveted Corporate Bailout Bill, which would give away a billion dollars a year to large corporations and the rich — more than the amount of the new sales tax. It would also shift property taxes off of big business and onto middle-class homeowners like you and me. And while the sales tax is temporary, their giveaways would be permanent.

What's worse is that Jan Brewer seems to be willing to go along with these ideas, now that she has her sales tax victory in hand. Here is a verbatim quote from her interview with the Arizona Capitol Times — the day after the sales tax passed:

"Capitol Times: would you be willing to consider the corporate tax cuts that many lawmakers are looking for?

Brewer: I think that would be a good thing to discuss next year.

Capitol TImes: So tax cuts are on the table? You’re not ruling them out?

Brewer: Everything is always on the table with Jan Brewer."

Arizona to Jan Brewer: We voted for your sales tax in order to save education, not to bail out the rich. How dare you even think of giving our hard earned tax money away to big corporations who aren't even based in Arizona, as you starve our kids' education system.

Everything IS always on the table with Jan Brewer, based on her recent history. She is trying to run for re-election as a pro-education governor. Let's look at just a few of the things she has done to education in the last year with the help of the Republican Legislature.

Even with Prop 100's new sales taxes in place, she will still cut $750 million from K-12 education in the next fiscal year, hot on the heels of last year's cuts to K-12, which were the largest in Arizona history to that point. Before all these cuts, we were last in the nation in per-pupil funding. Now the floor has given way and our education finances are in freefall, even if the sales tax revenues are actually spent on education.

She has eliminated:

–> full-day Kindergarten
–> early childhood block grants
–> family literacy programs
–> adult ed
–> gifted programs
–> the Healthy Families program

AND she wants you to vote to get rid of the First Things First early childhood programs that we voters overwhelmingly supported less than four years ago — while keeping the tax in place as a slush fund for her to give away in any way she wants.

Make no mistake — the intent of SB 1070 is not to stop illegal immigration. It won't do anything but make our community less secure. 1070 is a smokescreen, set up to distract us and the rest of the country from the destruction being wrought on our state's education system, parks system, environmental protection system, water system, health care system, and every other system under Republican control.

Republicans believe a smokescreen is the only way they can avoid disaster in November after Arizona public school parents of all political stripes have experienced three months of their children struggling through classrooms packed with 40 to 50 kids per teacher. Republicans hope they can distract voters into looking the other way when they are confronted personally with first-hand experiences proving the utter failure of Republican leadership.

Republicans want another two years to continue to slash and burn. Only a Democratic majority and a Democratic governor can stop their plans. That's why I am working so hard to get Terry Goddard elected Governor and get Democrats elected in competitive legislative districts all over Arizona. I suggest you do the same — it will not be easy, but it is absolutely vital to our survival as a state.