It's the weekend here in Phoenix and the weather is tiptoeing in unpleasant, with a sudden spike in temperature. I'm over at a friends house, and see families--mostly mom's and their kids--frolicking near the pool and getting an early start on the season. I give it the blah-face, eyebrow raised. Not ready for Arizona to do what it does best, which is be a desert. (Second best thing it does? Be a desert).
Yesterday ended a week of interesting speculation at another friend's job. He works in public eduction for a district office, and the district had finally decided on what cuts to make, given three possible scenarios. And they decided on cuts because the state legislature won't do some obvious things like temporarily raise taxes by a few percentage points. Better to cause havoc in the education system with people fired, people temporarily fired and rehired, teachers rotated and reorganized, and other such turmoil. Then again, the ultimate Republican goal is to shrink government, not necessarily keep people employed or maintain the public education system. School systems are thus left to scramble and hustle, layoff and fire, and cobble departments together to do the work that could barely get done before with more people.
This particular district decided to make most of the cuts at their district office, given previous hardships already visited upon the schools. So of six directors heading departments, two lost their jobs. Print shops were merged with supply offices and so on. All of this while raises are non-existent, benefits are cut back over time, and a highly animated conservative movement pushes the idea that government is inherently inefficient and lazy. There is no joy in working for the public. Servant indeed.
Which is funny, because the average teacher probably has more education than some of the Limbaughs and Becks out there peddling outrage.
Illinois took a particularly gutsy move, raising personal income taxes by 66% and corporate rates by 45%. When talking percentage it sounds like a huge increase, but in actuality the rate went from 3% to 5%. In an article back in January Fox News puts it this way, "The increase means an Illinois resident who now owes $1,000 in state income taxes will pay $1,666 at the new rate." Of course that new higher "crazy" rate that no Republican was willing to support in order to raise $6 billion toward balancing the budget, is a rate lower than many other states.
If we were to carry the same thing over to Arizona, one wonders if it would be worth an extra $50 a month to the average worker in order to assure a more than balanced budget for a year or two until the economy picks up. That is the question really. Do you spread the pain across the population with tax increases that are about the amount people waste in a given month on a trip to the movies or a pair of sneakers, or do you throw a smaller group out of work, who will then go on to have a massive ripple impact as they default on their homes, stop giving to charity, and completely stop spending while utilizing public services more?
Ideally, as is being done in Illinois to still experimental effect, you want to raise a tax long enough to build a rainy day surplus (with major strings), and freeze or cut spending at reasonable levels.
But nothing is reasonable in Arizona. Not the weather, not the politicians. It's always all or nothing, with no shade, reasoning scantily clad under a hard, brutal oblivious sun.
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