A COURAGEOUS GOVERNOR

Bill McCune is a broadcaster, documentary maker and former Arizona legislator. In the Opinions Section of Today's Republic, McCune authored a Special to the Republic titled, "Brewer's Valor Merits Spot in History Books."

There is a difference between today's politicians and yesterday's political leaders. This article shines a light on the problem with today's political community. Too many politicians put themselves first and the good of the country and community last. Politics has become more of a business then a public service. The only concern our current crop of elected officials seem to have is how to get re-elected.. Public policy is being determined by campaign contributions and public opinion polls and not the public good. And powerful special interest have learned who to contribute to and how to manipulate public opinion to get what they want.

Where have all the statesmen gone?

In this last season of the Arizona Legislature, some members have been guided by dogma instead of practicality, theory over reality, and a pledge to a protegee of corrupt political operative Jack Abramoff, Grover Norquist, over doing what Arizona must do to close a devastating budget gap.

What follows is the full article by Bill McCune .


Brewer's Valor Merits Spot in History Books.
by Bill McCune, September 22, 2009.

Other then some political TV reporting, I have not spent time at the Legislature since I left the state Senate in January 1977. My focus has been Arizona history and the 80-odd documentary projects I've produced.

This year, however, the Legislature captured my attention - and not in a good way. It makes my mind wander back and remember others who had qualities quite in contrast:

I was in awe of Sandra Day O'Connor and Burton Barr as they worked to create a school-tax equalization law.

I remember legislators such as David Kret of Scottsdale and John Wettaw of Flagstaff.
Brillant! Tom Goodwin of Tucson made the University of Arizona Medical School happen. And Howard Adams, himself quadriplegic, gave Arizona its emergency-medical services and put paramedics into every fire department.

Every name I mentioned was a "conservative" Republican.

Now, we turn to that sad aggregation of today's legislative leadership. I wonder if any of the landmark legislation mentioned above would have been approved by the current cast. "Too expensive," So much for Arizona's future.

"Gotta get rid of government! What matters is this year's tax bills...and next year's election."

A real conservative takes a different approach:

Today, we struggle. We have to raise more revenue for a year or two perhaps. Revenue means taxes. It's the true conservative approach - balance the damn budget! It's in our Arizona Constitution.

And finally, this; if memory serves, Gov. Jan Brewer's very first political activity was campaigning door to door for my re-election to the House in 1972. Today, Jan and I would probably disagree on many issues. And that's just fine, for more importantly she has turned out to be a profile in courage.

She has stood up for her righteous beliefs - for schoolchildren, for the mentally and physically challenged. And stood up to pay for it! This, in direct opposition to the small-minded powers of her own angry party. Politically, she has everything to lose. And, indeed, may well lose it.

But in producing Arizona history documentaries, I've studied the political career of every Arizona governor. Never before has one so consciously chosen to stand up and be counted, come what may.

We are witnessing a courageous, historic moment in Arizona history.

How Reagan Closed Budget Gap

Many people who calls themselves Reagan Conservatives forget that before Ronald Reagan was elected as President of the United States in 1980, he was governor of California from 1967-75.

Reagan's election as governor in 1966 was his first public office. During the 1964 presidential campaign he served as cochairman of California Republicans for Goldwater.

After defeating incumbent Democrat Governor Pat Brown with 58 percent of the vote, Governor Reagan went on to establish a conservative record in restricting the size and cost of state government.

Just as Republican Arizona Governor Jan Brewer inherited a huge budget deficit from Democrat Governor Janet Napolitano, Republican California Governor Ronald Reagan inherited a huge budget deficit from Democrat California Governor Pat Brown.

What did Reagan do, how did he handle the budget disaster he inherited from his Democrat predecessor. Reagan immediately ordered a hiring freeze of new state employees and then cut the state budget across the board by 10 percent.

The father of Reaganomics did something else that may come as a shock to the blind followers of Grover Norquist and Americans for Tax Reform. Working with a cooperative state legislature, Reagan was able to obtain an increase of the state income tax together with welfare reform legislation that striped the less needy from the rolls and increased benefits for those that met higher eligibility requirements. By cutting expenses and increasing revenue, Reagan was able to close the budget deficit he inherited from his Democrat predecessor.

Fast forward 40 years and doesn't that sound familiar? Isn't that the same as what Conservative Republican Governor Jan Brewer is trying to do to solve Arizona's budget problem, cut expenses and increase revenue? It seems that the only difference between what Reagan did and what Brewer is advocating is instead of raising the income tax, Arizona will cut the income tax to stimulate spending and temporarily increase the sales tax by one penny to increase revenue to help close the gap. .

There is one important difference between Reagan and Brewer however, Reagan didn't have uncooperative state senators like Pamela Gorman and Ron Gould obstructing solving his budget crisis, Brewer and Arizona does.

Bob Haran,
American Conservative Republican

Pullen Responds to Norquist Opposition to AZ Tax Increase

Grover Norquest of Americans for Tax Reform sent an e-mail to Arizona legislators opposing Governor Jan Brewer's suggestion of a possible $1 billion tax Increase.

Arizona Republican Party Chairman Randy Pullen published his response to Norquist's e-mail on his blog, "Pullen for the Party." http://azgop.typepad.com/

Here is the original e-mail to Arizona legislators from Norquest followed by Pullen's response.

Dear Legislator,

I am writing to strongly urge that you oppose Governor Jan Brewer’s plans for a $1 billion in annual tax increases on Arizona taxpayers.

One of the few things economists of all political stripes can agree on is that the last thing you want to do in a recession is raise taxes. Raising taxes in the current economic downturn will hurt Arizona families and encourage businesses to relocate across state lines, taking jobs with them.

According to the Center for Fiscal Accountability, Arizona taxpayers already spend 194 days – more than half the year – working just to pay for the cost of government. Furthermore, many Arizonans are already wondering how to cope if President Barack Obama’s budget – which contains over $1 trillion in tax hikes over the next 10 years – is passed into law. In this environment, Gov. Brewer’s proposed tax hikes will serve as the proverbial straw that breaks the state’s economic back. Irrespective of the form in which it passes, it will have an adverse and deleterious impact on the Arizona economy and taxpayers.

I urge you not to be fooled by claims this tax hike would be “temporary”. History has proven that ‘temporary’ tax hikes are about as prevalent in nature as unicorns. Point of fact, Arizonans that have land line phones are still paying the “temporary” tax hike put in place to fund the Spanish-American War of 1898.

Do not forget – Arizona does not have a budget shortfall – it has an overspending problem. According to the Goldwater Institute, the state’s general fund spending has grown at double the rate of population and inflation over the last five years – 66 percent compared to 33 percent. For the Arizona economy to recover and prosper, the size of government must be reigned in.

Families all over the Grand Canyon State are cutting back, making tough decisions, and prioritizing in order to live within reduced means. The state must do likewise.

Some elected officials view taxpayers, rather than tenured bureaucrats, union bosses and other spending interests, as their constituents. Americans for Tax Reform commends those elected officials who work for Arizona taxpayers rather than against them. Feel free to call on me or ATR’s state government affairs manager, Patrick Gleason (pgleason@atr.org) with any questions or concerns.


Onward,
Grover G. Norquist

This is Arizona Republican Party Chairman Randy Pullen's response.

A Modest Response to Americans for Tax Reform

Friends,

Earlier today, Americans for Tax Reform sent an e-mail to Arizona legislators highly critical of Governor Brewer's budget plan. While I think Grover Norquist and his team are incredibly smart people whom I consider friends, their e-mail warranted a response:

I understand your perspective on Arizona not having a shortfall but an overspending problem. I agree. It has been that way since Governor Napolitano essentially took control of the budget process after the 2006 election. With a weak republican legislature, she had her way. Now with the worst recession since 1982, we are in dire straits. As I said at the meeting yesterday, If we had Tabor in place during the entire decade, we would still have overspent by $200 million in 2008, $1.5 billion in 2009, $2 billion in 2010 and $2 billion in 2011 and so on. It would slowly start to decline and later this decade (2015+) it would be back to balanced. My point is this is no longer just government overspending, this is a real structural deficit and tax revenues are in free fall.

Do the governor and legislature need to continue to cut spending? Absolutely, and they will. This governor has already cut more than any governor before her. Besides pay cuts for teachers and state employees, 1,300 employees have been laid off and 15,000 have taken furloughs, and more to come.

There have been suggestions that the state sell buildings. In case you have not noticed, now is not the best time to be selling real estate, especially in Arizona. OK, that will generate a billion dollars, it would help, but it will also cost $80 to $90 million a year to lease back the buildings, which adds to the structural deficit (if the building were sold in an up market, the annual cost would be $30 million a year less).

The Goldwater institute has some good ideas on additional cuts and they need to be included where possible. They don’t have a plan for balancing the budget. They also have some ideas which represent their libertarian agenda and are not politically mainstream.

Finally, I do appreciate your position and respect what ATR is trying to do – reduce the size of government. Government will be greatly downsized in Arizona and rolled back literally five years to at least the 2006 level. I wish we could do more if possible, but we do run up against the reality of elections. If we want to continue to govern, we need to remain the majority party. While I am not in a position quite yet to be able to evaluate that risk, I will be in the near future. This is as much art as it is science and a balancing act. I will trust my instincts as they have been more right than wrong.

In the past 50 days, we have seen truly what it means to be the party in the minority. My goal is not to replicate this in Arizona in 2010.

Your hard hitting attack with claims such as taxes never go away, and this will be the straw that breaks the camel’s back are inflammatory and will not change the outcome of this debate in Arizona. If it ends up being a tax increase then Arizona taxpayers and tax credit receivers will have to give Arizona about 20% of their tax rebate from Obama. A real back breaker. If you are right, then the Ds will win in November because we will have destroyed Arizona’s economy and voters will throw us out and replace us with Ds and we will have more liberals gone wild in Arizona. I will retire and get to do a lot more fishing. You will be able to say I told you so. If you are wrong, we will have a stronger republican party, smaller government and a mandate to continue reforming government in Arizona. I will retire and get to do a lot more fishing. You will have learned a valuable lesson that will serve you well the rest of your professional life. I hope you will appreciate the gift.

Randy Pullen