Howler of the Week

Check out this convenient bit of revisionism from the Arizona Republic Editorial Board.

Unlike our neighbor, Arizona's biggest challenge isn't sky-high spending but nose-diving revenue. For the first 11 months of the fiscal year, through May, they were 18 percent below 2008.

Hmm, I don't expect editorial to be balanced, but they should at least be honest.  Governor Napolitano spent one-time bubble revenue on ongoing programs and now the reality that those programs were never sustainable is sinking in. 

The Republic's very own Bob Robb has a pretty balanced assesment here.

After the last recession, state revenues stabilized in 2003. State general fund spending that year was $6.6 billion.

State spending peaked in 2008, at $10.5 billion, or a 60 percent increase in just five years.

To be sure, Robb points out that revenue has fallen faster and farther than anyone expected, but the underlying culprit is spending.

It's not like the budget crisis is a surprise.  Many people--ATRA andTom Jenney for example--sounded the warning that the budget was unsustainable.  Here's an example from a column I wrote calle "The Road To Bankruptcy" that I ran in February of 2008.

But the easy choices have already been made; the gimmicks will soon be gone; the rainy day fund will soon be spent.  It's time for real leadership.  Instead, the Governor is saying "Nothing Down! No Payments until 2010."

Of course, she'll be gone in 2010 and we will be the ones paying off the credit cards.

 

Comments

[The Whole Truth]

And weren't all but one of those years of spending increases you blame on Napolitano also approved by the majority of Republicans in the legislature? And even the one that was supported by only a few GOP was still approved by a majority of lawmakers, as required by the constitution here.

One could also mention that your revisionist history conveniently neglects to mention that, under Napolitano, taxes were cut at the same time spending increased. You know who else was governor when that happened? Symingtion and Hull, in the decade immediately preceding Nappy. I would argue that such a move has done far more damage to our financial situation than anything else.

[Matt Sh.]

Hopefully the 2010 election will deliver a Republican Governor and Republican majority in the House and Senate so that they can work on this.

Oh, wait...

[muckraker]

I'm still waiting for Bob Robb to write a "balanced" column. Just because you agree with him does not make it balanced.

[Nothing less than the Whole Truth]

Whole truth, you just don't understand. Tax cuts are always good. Spending is always bad. When things go bad, it's always because of too much spending. When things are good, it's always because of the tax cuts. It's so simple, an eight-year old could understand it. Some eight-year olds might even see right through it.
But that would be approaching something more akin to the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth, so help me Uncle Ronnie.