Posted on 03/05/2010 10:36:09 AM PST by AZConcervative
Now that the "temporary" sales tax is heading to the ballot, I think we must shine a light on the predicament we find ourselves in.
The legislature kept referring to it as a revenue increase as if they were rolling out some new product line that would increase sales. Government of any kind, at any level, is not a revenue generator, they are overhead. In life you have the revenue generators (in this particular equation, you and me) and then you have the corporate office (the government bureaucracy). After closing my doors last year, I returned to work at a $1.2 billion per year company. While as solid as any company could hope to be, they too were feeling the impacts of the current economic climate. We had meeting after meeting about how we (the revenue generators) needed to increase our output to account for the decrease in revenue. Concurrently, the non-revenue generating side of the business (which had increased dramatically in the economic boom of the previous years) magically never retracted. You see, once a bureaucracy is in place it is near impossible to remove, it becomes an entitlement. So to make up for it, the overhead, in a few short years going from non-existent to a necessity, now requires more output from those that remain. Various portions of a bureaucracy that didn't even exist four or five years ago are now deemed too important to do without. Between 2005 and 2010 our discretionary budget practically doubled and now, according to the legislature, it is our duty as citizens to get out and help pull the cart.
Can anyone share with me what has changed so greatly between 2005 and 2010 that we would need to have twice the discretionary government expenditures? I thought not. Schools were open, criminals in jail, hospitals were treating patients. You see, they added program, after program, bureaucratic layer, after bureaucratic layer....because they could, not because it was needed. And now it is up to you and I to flip bill. I am still looking into what percentage of the legislature was in place from 2004 to now as this obscene increase took place, but I can tell you for certain that most of the legislators who voted to send this out to a ballot were.
The fact is we have a representative republic and not a true democracy for a reason. Everyday citizenry are too busy going about the job of being America and more specifically Arizona, to possibly grasp the details of a multi-billion dollar budget. Our founders understood this, thus we elect representatives whose job it is to learn the budget (in this case) and make educated decisions based on the information that we first elect them and then pay them to understand. If this is "beyond their pay scale", then in all candor they should respectfully step aside and give others a chance. Here is the best part about sending the tax increase out to the masses. It is a no lose scenario for the legislature. If the public votes for it, then they cannot complain that they are overburdened through excessive taxation, it was their choice. If they vote against it, the legislature can then make the necessary cuts and say it isn't their fault, they gave the people a chance and they chose not to have longer waiting times in the emergency rooms, overcrowded classrooms, criminals on the streets, or whatever other doomsday, melodramatic scenario they can come up with.
Governing is not easy. It takes courage and intellectual honesty. I am still waiting for just one of our representatives who were around from 2004 on to come out and say, you know what, we messed up and we are sorry. We failed you. We allowed the power to go to our heads and did not keep the spending within means as you, the people entrusted us to do. If you choose to elect other leaders that are more responsible we understand, but until that time we will make the cuts necessary to bring the expenditures within the revenue and not lay the responsibility for our negligence at your feet. We will suffer the consequences of our poor choices.
Leaders lead. They make the tough decisions that are for the benefit of all whom they serve, not the special interests that line their coffers. The State of Arizona must take measures to ensure that an irresponsible government can never again outspend their means. We must pass legislation that simply states that the state cannot, under any circumstances, spend more than projected revenues and within ten years have a system in place that operates on revenues collected in lieu of revenues projected. This will not be easy and it will not be painless, but I don't think the Revolution was without cost, nor the Civil War, in fact, I challenge anyone to show me with any consistency, when the right thing was the painless thing. We have a long tradition here in America of people sacrificing, at times to the point of death, to do what is in the best interest of the country, even to their personal detriment.
We can turn this state around. I believe in you, it's people and I believe in the system our founders established. Together, we can stand in this gap and say, this lack of governance goes no further on our watch. We will not sacrifice our children's future for special interest and lack of personal accountability. Work hard, be responsible and you have a home here in Arizona with a government worthy of such great Americans. A state that when times are tough, the citizens, not the government, will come up beside you and raise you up until you are able to stand on your own again. However, freeload and look for handouts and there are forty-nine other states that I am sure would love to add you to their census numbers so they can receive more federal subsidies.
God bless the United States of America and the citizens of Arizona, if there ever was a time that we needed the Grace of our Creator it is now.
In His Service and Yours,
Brett Petillo
LOL. A “temporary” tax increase. I can’t believe people still fall for that crap.
I am curious: do you support the AZ Governor’s proposal to drop nearly 400,000 people from the state’s Medicaid program (AHCCCS program), also losing the associated Federal 2:1 $$ match?
If so, are you/your employer prepared for 30% health insurance premium increases to make up the difference when it gets passed on to you in 2011?
Unfortunately, there are no free lunches.
In Mesa they are going to build a new CUBS stadium.................
There is $6.2 billion projected to be available, expenditures must not go beyond that. The situation isn’t as cut and dry as you might wish. The voter protection act must be addressed, unfunded mandates must be addressed, waste must be addressed, and the list goes on. Again, the discretionary budget has nearly doubled in five years. Furthermore AHCCCS was never intended for 1 out of every 5 Arizonans. As far as Federal matching, they take our money and then put strings on it to give it back. If it weren’t a fact it would be laughable. Could you run your life like this?
ridiculous...other people’s money used to build a stadium that Mesa will own. Good deal if you can get it, unfortunately, deals like that don’t exist in the real world.
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