Glenn Hamer, President and CEO of the Arizona Chamber of Commerce and Industry, had to talk about how wonderful Arizona’s just-passed, reprehensible budget is. After all, it probably has his fingerprints all over it. He wrote a column titled, Education a big winner in state budget.
Um, what?
To appreciate how devious and deceptive Hamer is willing to be, before you read his opening, you have to know that if Prop 123 passes and does what it says it will, it’ll mean $300 million more for schools next year. Ready? Here goes.
The Arizona state Legislature has passed a $9.6 billion budget for fiscal year 2017. The spending package is an excellent one for education. This budget and passage of Proposition 123 will result in $300 million more for K-12 than we expected to have at this time last year.
Right. Also, this excellent post of mine and two dollars will buy you a cup of coffee.
You can read the rest on your own if you wish, about how generous the legislature was in putting back the money it tried to steal from our schools, and about how the tax cuts for business encourage job creation. As Hamer wrote, “This is a budget that job creators will like.”
The ending is another gem, a bookend worthy of the deceptive opening. In yesterday’s post, I commented on the first step-second step circle dance being performed by some Republican legislators. Ducey likes to say that Prop 123 is a “first step” in improving education, implying that a state budget increase for schools is the next step. But some legislators pushed the idea that the budget they just passed is the first step and Prop 123 is the second step. Hamer went in the same direction.
A job well done to the Legislature and Gov. Ducey on this budget. Now let’s take the next step and pass Proposition 123.
So if Prop 123 passes and someone asks, “What’s the next step you promised?” the answer may be, “You’ve got it backwards. Prop 123 is the next step. The first step was passing the budget.”
A Doug-Ducey-Comes-to-Tucson BONUS. The governor was in Tucson Wednesday talking at the Tucson Hispanic Chamber of Commerce luncheon. It looks like he agrees with Hamer.
Gov. Doug Ducey said Wednesday the $9.58 billion state budget passed earlier in the day demonstrates his commitment to education funding at all levels.
Why were the Republicans able to make such a strong commitment to education, which meant not cutting K-12 schools and putting back some of the $99 million they took away from universities last year?
[Ducey] said it was easier this year than last to put money in the budget for education and other needs.
“It’s a much different budget when you actually have some money to spend versus some of the difficult decisions we had to make over a year ago,” he said.
It’s true, the state has money to spend this year: a $600 million surplus on top of $430 million in the Rainy Day fund. And it’s still sitting there, unspent.
This article appears in May 5-11, 2016.
Shorter Hammer: Hank Aaron (755) and his brother Tommie hit a combined 768 home runs. Power duo!
Joe, that’s Hamer, Glenn Hamer. Two N’s, one M. Hank Aaron is Hammer, or “Hammerin’ Hank” (he said pedantically). Or were you one step ahead of me and purposely made the Hamer/Hammer connection?
Dicey Ducey and humina-humina Hamer are like two frat boys looking to roofie the unsuspecting electorate with Proposition 123, which is a guaranteed visit to the emergency room for education in the state of Arizona.
We’ve seen this picture before. The “conservative” strategy to add profit taking to public services works like this:
1. Starve it
2. Blame it for its post starvation performance
3. Give it to the private sector “to save,” at the same time instituting massive funding increases to “fix the emergency,”
4. Stand around quietly while the newly privatized entity institutes quickly rising user fees because “government can’t cover the full cost”
5. Profits are taken; payoffs, campaign contributions, and jobs are given.
Arizona Chamber of Commerce and Industry is the real ISIS of Arizona and Chambers in other cities the same. Its all about them and how many tax cut they can get, while screwing the middle class. Wish we could just stop buying products from them.
When will voters wake up to the fact that Conservatives/Republicans are the real terrorist in America. They are taking from us. Kicking us in the gutter. This is what businesses are all about. Screwing its workers/employees while making big profits with the help of criminal GOP governors. Just look at Kansas as a great example of a criminal Governor, yet still in office.
I keep wondering what the Republicans think the future will be when they are destroying education. Do they really think America is finally coming to it demise? Most intelligent citizens would want a strong educational system, smart kids, building the future America.
While during the past years, the GOP has been tearing apart America, not allowing the cities, states to rebuild roads, bridges, railroads, schools. They are letting them rust, rot away.
So I don’t think the GOP thinks America has a future, with the mindset they continue to preach, that we don’t need taxes, just more profits for the 1%. Well that 1% doesn’t give HELL about America. Wake up voters, and now with Trump controlling the GOP instead of the Tea Party, voters really need to wake up and smell what Trump has in store for America.
The team he is building are criminal GSaks execs, spys, lobbyist. Everything he was against last week.
Our future economic and social well-being is directly determined by the health of our public education system. The architects of this budget continue cheating the future of all Arizonans.
Here is the sad truth, about 2/3rds of our Republican Legislature are members of ALRC the Koch founded, corporate funded bill mill that introduces “model” legislation. The are opposed to our public schools and want the government to fund private for profit schools. They support private prisons and the entire Koch agenda. So…..when someone runs for office ask the question, “Are you a member of ALEC?” If they are, remember, they don’t represent you they represent big business and the Koch industries.
I am a retired public school educator (30 yrs) and served 16 years on the Marana School Board. Back in the late 80’s I was getting information on who and why some people were praising how business could run schools better and the cure all was the voucher system. Businesses came into schools, spending lots of money on computer labs, computers in the classroom, etc. and failed miserably. Vouchers took hold, and now PROP 123 opens up vouchers to families whose children are on free or reduced lunch. Parents can take $5,400 from the Public School budgets for each child to pay for tuition at private or parochial schools—a gift of public funds, in my book, to private enterprises and a violation of the separation of Church and State. Unfortunately, average tuition in AZ for these school is $10,000. The families would have to come up with the other $4,600 per child. Net result, wealthy families get to use Public School Funds, to send their children to elite schools on the backs of public school children. Why? The ultimate purpose of the wealthy is to create a two caste system of education in the US. Wealthy children get expensive, quality education and learn to run corporations, network with other rich kids and their parents, while the children of the fading middle class and growing lower and poorer classes get just enough education to become low-paid worker bees. The only way they will be able to go to college is to join the military and hope they survive the current wars. All hope of achieving the American Dream will be trampled by the greedy pursuit of the purveyors of dark money to use our tax dollars to pay for their children’s education. For the sake of Public Education Please Vote No on PROP 123. Thank you.
Janice, are you sure they will be able to take $5400 to a private school with a voucher?
This article says the opposite:
More conservative lawmakers are pushing to expand the program to all public schoolchildren by 2020. Other Republicans – and Democrats – argue such a dramatic expansion would siphon desperately needed funds from public schools, and they say state leaders should instead focus on passing a $3.5 billion initiative for K-12 schools known as Prop. 123.
http://www.azcentral.com/story/news/politics/arizona-education/2016/02/29/private-school-voucher-bill-delayed-amid-uproar/81122228/