Gov's Vetoes Gave AZ $3.4B Budget Deficit
Arizona faces a $3.4 billion budget deficit for fiscal year 2010. Yet no one is discussing how we got to such an excessive budget deficit.
The answer, however, is fairly simple – the Governor’s veto pen.
The Governor’s vetoes led to:
- Elimination of $2.1 billion in spending reductions, and non-tax revenue solutions that would have helped balance the fiscal year 2010 budget as well as triggering new spending
- $775 million in restorations of new and previously made cuts and elimination of payment deferrals and fund transfers
- $485 million in additional K-12 spending
Governor Brewer’s veto of the Budget Reconciliation Bills has removed new spending reductions and restored the cuts the Legislature made in the fiscal year 2009 budget fix, which the Governor signed last January.
Her line item vetoes restored previously made cuts to specific agencies in the amount of $775 million (this figure also includes $142 million in rollovers to DES and Universities).
Additionally, the Legislature had to restore full year funding in the amount of $485 million to K-12 above the June 30 budgeted amount due Governor Brewer’s wholesale veto of the K-12 budget and the additional threat of losing $1 Billion in stimulus funding.
Without quick action by a veto-proof majority of the Legislature on July 6, the K-12 system would have been without funding in fiscal year 2010 to reverse the Governor’s zeroing out of the K-12 budget.
Arizona currently has the second worst budget deficit in the nation in regards to our rapidly declining revenues and growing expenditures. We need an honest accounting of how we got here and how to best move forward to fix our flailing economy.
The answer, however, is fairly simple – the Governor’s veto pen.
The Governor’s vetoes led to:
- Elimination of $2.1 billion in spending reductions, and non-tax revenue solutions that would have helped balance the fiscal year 2010 budget as well as triggering new spending
- $775 million in restorations of new and previously made cuts and elimination of payment deferrals and fund transfers
- $485 million in additional K-12 spending
Governor Brewer’s veto of the Budget Reconciliation Bills has removed new spending reductions and restored the cuts the Legislature made in the fiscal year 2009 budget fix, which the Governor signed last January.
Her line item vetoes restored previously made cuts to specific agencies in the amount of $775 million (this figure also includes $142 million in rollovers to DES and Universities).
Additionally, the Legislature had to restore full year funding in the amount of $485 million to K-12 above the June 30 budgeted amount due Governor Brewer’s wholesale veto of the K-12 budget and the additional threat of losing $1 Billion in stimulus funding.
Without quick action by a veto-proof majority of the Legislature on July 6, the K-12 system would have been without funding in fiscal year 2010 to reverse the Governor’s zeroing out of the K-12 budget.
Arizona currently has the second worst budget deficit in the nation in regards to our rapidly declining revenues and growing expenditures. We need an honest accounting of how we got here and how to best move forward to fix our flailing economy.