BUDGET DIVIDES LAWMAKERS
Under normal circumstances, putting together a state budget is a rather mundane, even boring, exercise. Lawmakers look at what’s already in the treasury, estimate the projected revenue from taxes, figure out what they see as expenses and decide how to allocate funds.
But these are not normal circumstances.
This year, the Republicans who control the Arizona Legislature, along with Gov. Doug Ducey, transformed the workaday process of creating a yearly financial plan into a prototype of political revenge.
And the first victim was you. Voters.
In the last election Arizona voters passed Proposition 208, a ballot initiative meant to restore funding to Arizona’s public schools by increasing the income tax on the wealthiest among us.
A total of 1,675,810 Arizonans voted for the measure.
Still, the wealthy friends of Republican lawmakers didn’t like that. So, with some seedy maneuvering the GOP-controlled Legislature and Ducey overturned the will of the people.
They created a flat tax and awarded the richest among us a gigantic windfall.
In other words, one governor, 16 Republican state senators and 31 Republican members of the House — 48 total individuals — wiped out the expressed wishes of 1,675,810 voting Arizonans.
Ducey even bragged about it, saying in a statement: “Every Arizonan — no matter how much they make — wins with this legislation. They will get to keep more of the money they earn under this tax plan.”
What he didn’t say is that for people on the low end of the spectrum the tax cut wouldn’t even buy them a large drink at McDonald’s, while those at the top end will save enough to purchase a franchise.
Then Republicans went after Secretary of State Katie Hobbs, a Democrat.
Arizona voters chose her as well, trusting Hobbs to fulfill the obligations of the office, which — to the horror of GOP lawmakers — she did.
Hobbs preserved and protected Arizona’s election process, even though doing so allowed Republicans to maintain their slim majority in the state House and Senate.
But, Joe Biden also won.
And these same Republicans, who claim no fraud in their election, assert sinister intrusions with the president, although everyone was on the same ballot.
They went after Hobbs in part because the sham audit being run by the GOP/QAnon/Trump cult is likely to result in a lawsuit or two. Under Arizona law that was the purview of the secretary of state.
So, lawmakers changed it, switching the authority to settle election-related lawsuits from Hobbs’ office to that of Trump-junkie Attorney General Mark Brnovich. At least temporarily. The new law expires at the same time as Hobbs’ term in office.
Yeah ... subtle.
After that, Republican lawmakers — in what was supposed to be a budget process — took time to attack educators and students and school administrators, first with a law aimed at intimidating teachers into not discussing the role of institutional racism in the United States, then with bans against schools and universities requiring the use of masks or vaccinations to prevent the spread of COVID-19.
So, just like that, Gov. Ducey and these 47 other Republicans exacted revenge against 1,675,810 Arizona voters, the secretary of state and Arizona’s entire education community, including your kids.
After the attack, Secretary Hobbs issued a statement that read in part: “Republican legislators have egregiously weaponized the budget process ...”
Yes, they did. And then took aim. At you. And fired.