Our culture seems to love fear.
Scary movies have always been popular, Halloween is one of the most publicized holidays and the media jumps on anything frightening.
Politicians also seem to love fear as well — it has driven the policy of the Arizona state government for the past several weeks.
Our state legislators and governor are in a destructive, disastrous deadlock over the 2010 budget.
No side is willing to compromise. They each use fear to coerce the other into agreement. The governor sued the Legislature. Even worse, the state could come to a screeching halt on June 30.
This date marks the end of fiscal year 2009. If no budget is passed, then no money is allocated to any programs for fiscal year 2010. Gov. Jan Brewer already called for preparations for a partial government shutdown.
The Republicans in the Legislature are playing the crisis card. Many of them maintain that budget cuts are the only way to pay off our multi-billion dollar shortfall.
The Legislative Republicans have also decided to sit on a budget they passed June 4. It is likely Brewer would veto it.
For this reason, the budget will make its way to Brewer’s desk at the last minute, then she will have no choice but to approve it, unless she wants to shut down the state government.
This deadlock is a perfect example of petty, parsimonious, problematic politics. It seems reason has up and left the state of Arizona. Our legislators must govern with an even and steady hand during a fiscal crisis. Any sudden movements could leave Arizonans hurting for generations.
Brewer’s solution involves raising the sales tax to 6.6 percent and phasing out the property equalization tax, while the Congressional Republicans want to combat any tax increases and cut program after program. Neither of these plans is beneficial.
According to an Arizona Republic article, raising the sales tax would cost a family $438 annually. It would be more beneficial to raise property taxes. This would be softer on the pocketbooks of Arizona citizens.
A $150,000 home would end up paying only $140 more in yearly taxes. The legislative Democrats included this in their proposed budget.
Phasing out the property equalization tax takes $250 million in revenue away from the state.
This tax will not leave a gaping hole in a person’s pocket. Someone who has a home valued at $176,000 would end up paying around $58 yearly in taxes. The extra income from this light tax is needed to support state health care and education.
The idea behind these pointed policies is everyone will contribute: No one is stuck with the full burden.
If Arizona would like to move forward as a state we must have revenue.
This means we must find the most efficient way to tax our citizens. This reasoning seems to escape the legislative Republicans.
The apocalypse will supposedly bring four horsemen. They are widely understood to be Conquest, War, Famine and Death.
These four horsemen have arrived, just in a different fashion than many of us expected. The Legislature is on a conquest to cut government programs, while Brewer has declared war on the Legislature.
Given a government shutdown, there will be a famine of state services and a death of faith in our elected officials.
It looks like the apocalypse might come sooner than we thought.
Andrew can be reached at andrew.hedlund@asu.edu
