Posts Tagged ‘Napolitano’

What’s ahead for Arizona during this amazing budget crisis?

From Expresso Pundit.com.

The public, the media and most legislators have no clue how bad the the budget is. We are like someone who has been unemployed for a few years, actually increased our lifestyle by spending down our 401k and refinancing our house. Now we still have an extravagant lifestyle and all the reserves are gone. Napolitano’s level of fiscal mismanagement amounts to malfeasance.

We are going to do the unthinkable. We will be releasing thousands of non-violent prisioners who have less than a year left on their prison terms. School funding will be cut, AHCCCS reimbursements will be cut, the tax equalization rate will be allowed to rise. Double counting out-of-state college students will stop. All day Kindergarten is gone. The Science foundation is gone. The Commerce and Tourism departments? Gone. We are going to sweep the remaining funds, refuse to fund the state’s pension system, reduce the state contribution to employee health care benefits and then we are going to see large layoffs and a even then we will run out of cash and struggle to make payroll.

A consistent theme I’ve been blogging about recently is how Tucson and Arizona are overly dependent on growth to fuel our economy.  Growth of people moving in to our community creates a new influx of capital and a new set of consumers that need housing, cars, appliances, haircuts and an entire host of other services.

A highlight of the Nov. 3rd U.S. News and World Report article highlights;

Q. With tax revenues evaporating and no housing bubble propping up the economy, how serious is the situation in your state?

A. It’s quite serious….But historically our economy has been tied to housing, so when the housing bubble burst, California, Arizona, Nevada, Florida – those states got hit early and particularly hard.

 The states that will tend to do better are those that have a diversified economic base. New Mexico, Texas and much of the Pacific Northwest is looking pretty good.