February 23 , 2009

I missed last week's "Weekly Report" and have almost missed this week's! 

It's hard to describe the hectic pace at which we've been working for the past two weeks.  I had thought that once the 2009 budget deficit had been closed, there would be a period of relative quiet as we regrouped to solve the 2010 challenge.  I was wrong.

We started right in on hearing from the various departments and agencies in the Appropriations Committee.  In addition to our regular Wednesday meetings, we've had joint meetings with the Senate committee on Thursdays.  And, we've had small group meetings where we could give our input to the Appropriations chairmen as to where the State can safely make additional cuts to spending.

This past week we've had several briefings on the "stimulus" package passed by the federal government.  Our superb Joint Legislative Budget Committee (JLBC) staff has worked non-stop to digest as best they can this massive spending bill.  We have a fairly good idea of what monies will be coming to Arizona, but the details of where that money can be spent and what other "strings" are attached are still coming in.  A case in point happened in last week's briefing:  $24 million was cut from the child care subsidy in the Dept. of Economic Security's budget for the current year.  (This was at the discretion of the department's Director, not the legislature -- but that's a whole other story.)  Democrats were for restoring that spending, triggering the ability to draw down $50 million in stimulus funding which can be used to either add recipients or increase the amount of each subsidy.  But this additional money is only available for two years.  So, at the end of that period of time we have either more people in the program or higher payments -- with no "stimulus" money to cover the costs.  The choice then becomes find additional money from some source (taxes, of course) or remove people from the program.  So we'll be right back where we are now.  And this is a very small part of the billions of dollars we're talking about.

You've probably heard the talk that we should just refuse the money from the feds; but truth be told, Arizona desperately needs these dollars.  We assumed $500 million just to be able to come up with a revised 2009 balanced budget.  The shortfall for 2010 looks to be in the neighborhood of $3 billion.  Even after factoring in the federal money, we're still looking at a massive deficit.  So I personally don't believe that we can turn our backs on these funds.  Another point to be made is that this money will be spent somewhere -- if Arizona doesn't get it's share, it will simply go to another state and our citizens will still be stuck with paying the bill.

The federal plan is structured so that the governors of the various states have the ultimate authority to decide how the money will be spent.  We are so fortunate to have Jan Brewer in that office now.  At least we (i.e., the Republican majority) can have a dialogue with her and work towards the best use of the funds.  I shudder to imagine what would have happened under our former governor.

In the midst of all of this, we continue to hear bills in committees.  I am sponsoring a total of 18 bills this session, and it's been all I can do to keep track of each one's progress.  It's an interesting challenge to be chairing a committee, then be called away to present one's bill in another committee (leaving the committee in the hands of the vice-chair), wait for the results of the committee vote, then return to the first committee and try to pick up on whatever has taken place in your absence. 

So far, all of my bills that have been heard have passed out of their assigned committees.  I still have a few going through the process, so I can't claim 100% success yet.  The last day to hear House bills in House committees is March 6th.  Already a request has been made to extend that date, but we're waiting for a decision from the Speaker.  Since the Senate isn't hearing any bills until the 2010 budget is passed, we're facing a potential logjam.  I'll try to address the implications of that next week.