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Thank you to Mesa Issues for the opportunity to express my opinions on some
of the important issues facing Arizona. As a candidate for the Arizona House of Representatives I get asked to fill out scores of questionnaires on a wide variety of topics that are important to that particular group. Newspaper interviews tend to get edited down so much that my real opinions and views don’t come through clearly.
Let me start off by saying that I am a conservative Republican with strong family values and see myself as especially fiscally conservative. In fact it is my fiscal views and the Arizona budget crisis that drew me into this race.
The Arizona Budget:
Last year the Governor and legislature had two difficult budgets to balance. For fiscal year 2008 they used up the rainy day fund (a legitimate use of the fund), they swept accounts that had been set up for specific purposes ( not a legitimate practice), they pushed some spending into the next fiscal year (postpones the pain one more year).
For fiscal year 2009 the easy gimmicks were used up in the 2008 budget, and since Arizona’s constitution demands a balanced budget it looked like we would finally have some spending cuts. But no, instead we end up with $2 BILLION in debt (Bonding). Since when is going into debt part of balancing the budget? I do not believe that this practice of bonding is in keeping with the intentions of the writers of the state constitution. Now just 3 months into the new fiscal year we are close to $300 Million behind in tax revenue which could easily mean more that $1 Billion more that needs to be found to balance the budget. Hopefully not with more debt, but with some genuine spending cuts, and hopefully done in special session so that there is time to have some real effect on the 2009 budget.
One of the issues that faces the state in reducing spending is voter mandated programs that cannot be cut by the legislature and in fact continue to increase even when revenues are down. These currently account for over 50% of the budget. This means that in order to balance the budget we can only consider one half of the programs. I do not believe that this was the intent of the voters. We need a special election to modify the voter mandated spending so that when revenues are down for two consecutive fiscal years, that all programs can be subject to reductions in spending. And when the economy improves, the voter mandates go back into effect.
The Arizona Economy:
Part of my platform has been a stated goal of working to attract a diverse group of companies to set up their businesses in Arizona. This would not only provide new jobs for Arizonans, but it would help to diversify our job base so that we are not so dependent on a construction economy. Anyone who has lived in Arizona long enough will remember several boom/bust economic cycles tied almost solely to construction ups and downs. A more diverse job base will help to smooth out the boom/bust cycles that Arizona goes through, and will therefore make the budget easier to manage. Part of being able to attract new businesses to Arizona is showing them that we have a properly educated workforce that is ready and willing to work. Which brings us to the third point, Education.
Arizona’s Education System:
Everyone talks about the importance of our children’s education, but are we ready and willing to do something? Much is made of the fact that Arizona ranks at the bottom of states in per pupil spending. In terms of performance in reading and math we rank in the bottom half, but not as bad as the spending per pupil would lead you to believe. Do we need to spend more? I don’t think so. The U.S. as a whole has increased per pupil spending by 240%, in inflation adjusted dollars, over the past 20 years and has seen no overall improvement in education scores. Even if we worked hard and made Arizona’s education system the best in the country, we would have a third rate system in terms of a global perspective. The U.S. ranks in the bottom half of industrialized nations and even lower than many developing nations in the quality of the education that our children are receiving. We need to scrap AIMS, it means nothing nationally and even less internationally. There are tests available that over 100 nations use currently, we need to adopt these to really see how our education system is working. We need to set our graduation standards higher. We need to recruit our teachers from among the best and brightest, and be willing to pay them competitive wages. We need earlier childhood education. We need longer school days. We need to prepare our students to compete on a global scale. Our current system won’t work. We need to be willing to look at and try a new system. The National Center on Education and the Economy is a great place for us to look to for ideas that will let us change our education system in a way that will allow our students to be globally competitive, without spending more.
I look forward to working to make Arizona a great place to live, to work, and to raise a family.
Thanks,
Steve Court
of the important issues facing Arizona. As a candidate for the Arizona House of Representatives I get asked to fill out scores of questionnaires on a wide variety of topics that are important to that particular group. Newspaper interviews tend to get edited down so much that my real opinions and views don’t come through clearly.Let me start off by saying that I am a conservative Republican with strong family values and see myself as especially fiscally conservative. In fact it is my fiscal views and the Arizona budget crisis that drew me into this race.
The Arizona Budget:
Last year the Governor and legislature had two difficult budgets to balance. For fiscal year 2008 they used up the rainy day fund (a legitimate use of the fund), they swept accounts that had been set up for specific purposes ( not a legitimate practice), they pushed some spending into the next fiscal year (postpones the pain one more year).
For fiscal year 2009 the easy gimmicks were used up in the 2008 budget, and since Arizona’s constitution demands a balanced budget it looked like we would finally have some spending cuts. But no, instead we end up with $2 BILLION in debt (Bonding). Since when is going into debt part of balancing the budget? I do not believe that this practice of bonding is in keeping with the intentions of the writers of the state constitution. Now just 3 months into the new fiscal year we are close to $300 Million behind in tax revenue which could easily mean more that $1 Billion more that needs to be found to balance the budget. Hopefully not with more debt, but with some genuine spending cuts, and hopefully done in special session so that there is time to have some real effect on the 2009 budget.
One of the issues that faces the state in reducing spending is voter mandated programs that cannot be cut by the legislature and in fact continue to increase even when revenues are down. These currently account for over 50% of the budget. This means that in order to balance the budget we can only consider one half of the programs. I do not believe that this was the intent of the voters. We need a special election to modify the voter mandated spending so that when revenues are down for two consecutive fiscal years, that all programs can be subject to reductions in spending. And when the economy improves, the voter mandates go back into effect.
The Arizona Economy:
Part of my platform has been a stated goal of working to attract a diverse group of companies to set up their businesses in Arizona. This would not only provide new jobs for Arizonans, but it would help to diversify our job base so that we are not so dependent on a construction economy. Anyone who has lived in Arizona long enough will remember several boom/bust economic cycles tied almost solely to construction ups and downs. A more diverse job base will help to smooth out the boom/bust cycles that Arizona goes through, and will therefore make the budget easier to manage. Part of being able to attract new businesses to Arizona is showing them that we have a properly educated workforce that is ready and willing to work. Which brings us to the third point, Education.
Arizona’s Education System:
Everyone talks about the importance of our children’s education, but are we ready and willing to do something? Much is made of the fact that Arizona ranks at the bottom of states in per pupil spending. In terms of performance in reading and math we rank in the bottom half, but not as bad as the spending per pupil would lead you to believe. Do we need to spend more? I don’t think so. The U.S. as a whole has increased per pupil spending by 240%, in inflation adjusted dollars, over the past 20 years and has seen no overall improvement in education scores. Even if we worked hard and made Arizona’s education system the best in the country, we would have a third rate system in terms of a global perspective. The U.S. ranks in the bottom half of industrialized nations and even lower than many developing nations in the quality of the education that our children are receiving. We need to scrap AIMS, it means nothing nationally and even less internationally. There are tests available that over 100 nations use currently, we need to adopt these to really see how our education system is working. We need to set our graduation standards higher. We need to recruit our teachers from among the best and brightest, and be willing to pay them competitive wages. We need earlier childhood education. We need longer school days. We need to prepare our students to compete on a global scale. Our current system won’t work. We need to be willing to look at and try a new system. The National Center on Education and the Economy is a great place for us to look to for ideas that will let us change our education system in a way that will allow our students to be globally competitive, without spending more.
I look forward to working to make Arizona a great place to live, to work, and to raise a family.
Thanks,
Steve Court
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