The Skinny

IN GROVER, WE TRUST

Yet another effort to pass a now-overdue state budget collapsed
earlier this week, when Republican senators couldn’t find a 16th vote.
The Legislature has now missed an extended deadline to get a referendum
on the ballot to ask voters to pass a temporary sales tax to get
Arizona through its tough times.

We were certainly hoping the budget package wouldn’t pass. There’s a
lot wrong with this budget, but the biggest long-term problem has to be
the tax cuts, which would primarily benefit the wealthiest people in
the state.

The Joint Legislative Budget Committee has estimated that the tax
cuts would ensure that Arizona would have budget shortfalls for years
into the future, even if voters were to approve the temporary
one-cent-per-dollar sales tax that Gov. Jan Brewer wants. It’s
perplexing that Brewer would recognize the need for additional revenue
from a sales-tax increase, but then agree to massive cuts to corporate
and income taxes that would cripple the state’s ability to fund the
social services that she purports to be concerned about. A property-tax
cut that will primarily benefit business interests is also
included.

If the sales tax is approved, JLBC estimates that the state would
have a $892 million shortfall in fiscal year 2011, which lawmakers will
have to address when they start writing a budget five months from now.
The numbers get worse from there: the shortfalls are estimated to be
$2.2 billion in fiscal year 2012, and $2.7 billion in fiscal year
2013.

If the sales tax isn’t approved, the numbers are even more
frightening: A shortfall of $1.9 billion in 2011, $3 billion in 2012
and $3.1 billion in 2013.

Is this what it means to be a fiscally responsible Republican these
days? Wouldn’t it make more sense to wait until it’s time to write
those budgets before concluding whether we can afford the tax cuts?

There’s one reason for the tax cuts to be in the package: to give
Republicans who have pledged to never increase any tax some cover to
justify asking voters to approve a sales tax. But given the long-term
consequences, it strikes us as a lousy trade-off.

Howie Fischer of Capitol Media Services wrote a piece last
week that neatly illustrated the absurdity of the tax-cut fever at the
Capitol, as “principles” have overtaken any semblance of common
sense.

Fischer reported that to try to find a 16th vote on the budget
package, Senate President Bob Burns wanted to split a key
proposal into two bills: One would ask voters to increase the sales
tax, while the other would provide the income-tax cuts. Burns reasoned
that he could get Sen. Pamela Gorman, who has opposed the
package because of the tax increase, to support the tax-cut portion,
while also getting Sen. Carolyn Allen, who opposes the tax cuts,
to support the referral.

OK, that’s pretty wacky right off the bat, given that the end result
would be the passage of a package that includes elements that both
women oppose. (And judging from the press reports we’ve seen, it’s
unlikely that Allen—who is perhaps the last fiscally responsible
Republican left in the Arizona Senate—is willing to go along with
the charade, although we’re ready for just about anything to happen in
this political environment.)

But Howie’s report got even weirder when he talked to Carl
Seel, a member of the House of Representatives, which would have to
vote on the package again because of the changes made by the
Senate.

Seel had already voted in favor of the budget deal, but said he
might have to vote against it if the tax increase and the tax cuts were
not in the same bill. Sure, the end result would be the same, but if he
voted for a tax increase in a bill that didn’t include a tax cut, Seel
reckoned he’d be violating his pledge to Grover Norquist of
Americans for Tax Reform.

The whole thing reminds us of a game of “Simon Says” that’s gone
very, very wrong.

To help Seel get past this hurdle, Norquist himself announced last
week that in this case, it was OK with him to let voters have a say in
a sales-tax boost as long as income-tax cuts remained part of the
package.

While it’s nice of Grover to grant dispensation, it’s downright
pathetic that the quality of our lawmakers has degenerated to this
level.

FIXER-UPPERS

Following the news that the City Council had approved a deal to
acquire the Steinfeld warehouse and three other buildings in downtown’s
historic Warehouse District, there’s more good news for warehouse fans:
Longtime tenants won’t have to move out of several structures along
Toole and Stone avenues.

Two months ago, the Tucson Fire Department issued an “order of
abatement” for six buildings owned by the Arizona Department of
Transportation which, in five cases, are leaded to artists and others
users. The order mandated that “repairs to the structural components of
the buildings shall be completed within 60 days or the occupants shall
be evacuated.”

In an Aug. 6 report, a Fire Department official said that
engineering studies have been done on five of the six buildings, and
repairs to four of them should be completed by deadline. The tenant of
the fifth building, one of those on Stone Avenue, “may not be able to
afford repairs of building.”

The one major exemption to this generally good news is the former
Baffert and Leon grocery warehouse at the corner of Stone and
Toole.

For many years, this historic building was home to Zee’s Mineral
Gallery. Zee Haag tried to buy the warehouse some time ago, and
had plans to rehabilitate it. But he ran into a wall of legal issues
thrown up by ADOT, so he abandoned the idea and vacated the
building.

The structure now sits empty and is in need of repairs. Let’s hope
someone can figure out a way to save it before the wrecking ball comes
down.

SCRAMBLEWATCH ’09: GREAT DEBATE EDITION

You probably haven’t noticed, but there’s a Republican primary
underway in southside Ward 5, where Democrat Steve Leal is
stepping down after two decades in office.

Political rookies Judith Gomez and Shawn McClusky are
squaring off in the Sept. 1 primary. The winner will face Democrat
Richard Fimbres in the November general election.

There are roughly 3,800 registered Republicans in Ward 5, according
to the Pima County Recorder’s Web site, so the candidates don’t have
many voters to contact. As of Aug. 9, 1,049 of the GOP voters had
requested early ballots. Of those, 292 had already sent their ballots
back in.

Gomez and McClusky had what’s likely to be their only televised
debate earlier this week on KUAT Channel 6’s Arizona
Illustrated, with anchor Bill Buckmaster and Skinny scribe
Jim Nintzel. If you missed it, you can catch it online in the
“on demand” section at azpm.org or
embedded at The Range.

Find early and late-breaking Skinny at The Range, our daily
dispatch.

This article appears in Aug 13-19, 2009.