We must keep tabs on lawmakers’ budget trickery

The Arizona Legislature must have a two-thirds vote to raise your taxes. However, the Legislature and the governor have found a stealth way around this. They cut certain budgets, but then granted unlimited fee (tax) authority to several agencies. By unlimited I mean no statutes to worry about, no rule-making, no required discussion with taxpayers, and most important, no due process.

Make no mistake; fees are taxes to the party writing the check. The governor and those legislators who voted for the budget bill gave the authority to six different agencies to raise fees (taxes) without any rules.

Pretty neat, don’t you think? This is an unprecedented gift of power from the legislative to the executive branch.

There is no balanced budget. The Legislature and the governor are simply transferring costs.

I am not arguing against reasonable fees — we should have the discussions in state government as to who benefits and who pays. We must also consider that many regulatory activities are demanded by the public and benefit the public.

But these discussions should be held in sunshine. Why? Government should always operate in an open process. State government is placing new financial burdens on certain sectors, on local levels of government and ultimately on taxpayers. Openness is required because the public insists on certain levels of service from their government — what services benefit only selected parties and what is the public benefit? It is a question that requires a public process.

These new fees (taxes) are already being implemented on some sectors. If this practice is allowed to go unchecked, it may ultimately affect every area of service we receive from the state. K-12 education is a huge part of the budget. Just think of the savings if the authority existed to charge parents all sorts of new fees, just for the right for their children to attend public schools.

Some of our elected officials are using their taxing power while telling us they are not raising taxes. It’s a perfect scheme, as they can say the budget was balanced with no new taxes. Does this conjure up an image of Pontius Pilate washing his hands of responsibility?

And by the way, at the same time they are doing this, the Legislature and the governor are raiding funds created by fees. So as we continue with this budget trickery, agencies can refill their coffers only to be raided again with no accountability. It’s a great budget device — if we let them get away with it.

This pattern will not go away unless state government honestly confronts what government costs matched against the tax sources available.

Additionally, the public should support reforming the initiative process so a few special interests cannot earmark spending and reduce flexibility in low revenue cycles.

As it is, we probably can dispense with the whole agony and teeth gnashing of the budget process at the Capitol if these patterns are allowed to run amuck — just give unlimited authority to every agency of state government to impose and collect fees on whatever basis they deem necessary. It would be great relief if legislators and the governor did not have to worry so much about the budget, except that is what we elected them to do.

In the meantime, you can expect more of this wizardry and gimmickry.

Did your state senator or representative endorse this process by voting for the budget bill? You might want to check before you go to the polls this year.

Kevin Rogers is president of the Arizona Farm Bureau.