by David Safier
So the Republicans have come out with a budget proposal. Though they say it's not a real budget, just a bunch of ideas they're throwing around. But even as ideas, some of these things are so loony, the great minds behind the plans are already in the process of taking them back.
One of their ideas that's gotten a lot of press is taking $300 million from school district coffers. The Rs think the money is just sitting there, and the legislature can take it, then dole it out across the state as part of their allotment for education. Another idea that just surfaced is sweeping up $210 million from impact fees cities collect.
The $300 million from school districts is based on the fantasy that districts regularly just salt money away, I guess because they have so much of it. In fact, some of it is already spoken for, and some of it is money districts have cut corners to put away in hopes of lessening the impact of 2010 cuts. (And the money would be taken from them and spread out to other districts that were less careful and spent all their funds. Nice.) It even turns out that districts can negotiate lower rates on bonds if they have some money in reserve, so zeroing out their accounts would actually cost money for years in the form of larger interest payments. And besides, by the end of the year, lots of that $300 million figure will be spent. This is all a pipe dream. That must be some strange stuff those Republicans have been smoking.
And sweeping up impact fees from cities? That money is set aside for infrastructure needed for new homes. If the state takes it away, the cities will have to find the money some other way, like raising taxes.
To show how incompetent these folks are, the House and Senate canceled a Tuesday afternoon joint committee hearing on the impact fee idea.
The Home Builders Association of Central Arizona has long argued that impact fees are a costly burden that dampen home sales, and the group recently called for a moratorium on impact fees to help sales of new homes recover.
The association's lobbyist declined to comment on the budget-balancing proposal when contacted by The Associated Press on Monday.
Oops.
These folks have been working day and night behind closed doors to come up with plans that aren't feasible, may not be legal, and wouldn't accomplish what they're supposed to accomplish if they were feasible and legal. Good thing their budget talks were super duper top secret (I hear they held the meeings in the safe Dick Cheney used to keep in his office). If someone in the real world told them how ridiculous their ideas were, they wouldn't have been able to release a not-real budget plan today. And that would be a pity.
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