Kill the Beast, Slit its Throat, Cry Republicans in Phoenix

We can't help but think that the legislators in Illinois have a far better management grip on their budget crisis than the ideological Republicans dominating Arizona's state government.

Illinois will temporarily increase personal income taxes to 5%, up from 3%, on individuals, and with corporate rates moving from 4.8% up to 7%. This small move will raise roughly 6.5 billion in a year (see Progress Illinois).

Meanwhile here in the land of the rigid and shortsighted, Governor Brewer and the Republicans will continue to slash away at jobs and assistance to the poor, from education funding to medicaid access.

It does not take a professor to tell you that it's better to raise taxes on the many by a slight margin, to avoid throwing tons of people out of work. Those people soon stop spending altogether. They lose homes and reduce consumption drastically.

In any case a professor at Arizona State University actually has concluded that a revenue increase will lose you fewer jobs than additional cuts.

Arizona State University economist Tom Rex said Thursday that raising taxes and fees would have a less negative impact on the state's economy than the spending cuts Gov. Jan Brewer's budget plan proposes.

The governor relies heavily on spending reductions, including eliminating health-care coverage for more than 280,000 Medicaid recipients, to close a budget deficit her office estimates at $1.15 billion for fiscal 2012.

(Arizona Republic)

 Trust Arizona's Republican dominated legislature to dismiss this in their efforts to "kill the beast" and use these difficult times to shape the government into the smaller size they have determined is ideal.