Opening a new business in Arizona will take longer because of budget vetoes Gov. Jan Brewer made earlier this month, a spokeswoman for the Arizona Corporation Commission said Friday.
Brewer’s vetoes earlier this month cost the Arizona Corporation Commission, which processes filings for the creation of new businesses, $2.8 million, spokeswoman Rebecca Wilder said. The budget reduction will result in fewer staff members available to process requests, she said.
“The effect of that will be that the amount of time it takes to process the filings will increase exponentially,” Wilder said.
Parts of the budget Brewer vetoed would have also allowed the commission to use filing fees for operating expenses, Wilder said.
“As each month goes by without the funding levels that we need, it’s going to take longer and longer to process corporations’ filings, and that means people can’t start their businesses,” she said. “That means Arizona is going to miss out on a lot of business.”
Wilder said the Arizona Corporation Commission sent a letter to the state Legislature a few weeks ago explaining how serious the gravity of the reduction in funding and asking Brewer to call a special session to discuss the problem.
Wilder said filing a new business’s documents, which is already a 30-day process, will become slower and affect Arizona’s economy.
“That’s time that they are not able to earn money,” she said. “For the state, it means that there are a lot of businesses that won’t be able to start, and that’s reduced revenue for the state overall. It can severely impact Arizona’s economy.”
Paul Senseman, director of communications for the governor’s office, said Brewer has tried to make the Legislature hold a special session to address those matters.
“There are a number of small agencies whose services will absolutely be impacted without legislative action,” he said. “These agencies, including [the Arizona Corporation Commission], and their issues should be addressed in a special legislative session.”
But Senseman said the issue is beyond Brewer’s control.
“That’s the Legislature’s job,” he said. “It’s their authority. They issue how much spending authority each agency has.”
Political science junior Nickolas Shapkarov said with the budget deficit Arizona is facing, the Legislature may have higher priorities than the Arizona Corporation Commission.
“It needs to be fixed, and maybe the Legislature is just avoiding the situation because they just don’t have the money right now to take care of [the Arizona Corporation Commission],” Shapkarov said. “There have been other instances, not even just in U.S. government and local government, where parliaments just won’t convene simply for the fact of avoiding a very pressing issue.”
Shapkarov said it may benefit Arizona’s economy for the Legislature to address the budget so that businesses can open more quickly.
“What the economy is based on is businesses being able to function and pay their taxes,” he said. “By slowing that process down, it just seems like they would be losing out on potential revenue for the state.”
Reach the reporter at salvador.rodriguez@asu.edu.
