Lawmakers must get past anger on property tax

Considering the state's entrenched fiscal woes, Gov. Jan Brewer was certain to upset a large cross section of public interests no matter how she handled the latest budget proposal.

But still, it was shocking last week to watch Brewer reject the highest priority of Republican lawmakers - a permanent repeal of the state property tax - in an effort to protect funding for K-12 education, mental health care, and key programs at the Department of Economic Security.

An avowed fiscal conservative, Brewer should have been as firmly committed as the Republicans who control the Legislature to the idea that bringing back the property tax this year will make it harder for Arizona businesses to emerge from the recession and start hiring again. Rebounding economic growth (along with appropriate reductions in government spending) will be a far better route to resolving budget imbalances in the long run than this type of higher tax.

However, it must be noted that Brewer has said consistently since she took office that she opposed slashing funds for education and health care without at least without giving the voters an opportunity to say for themselves if they wanted temporary higher taxes.

Unable to win passage of her sales tax plan, Brewer apparently still would not accept some of the spending reductions in the budget. Once she decided to use line-item vetoes to restore that funding, her only responsible course was to veto the property tax repeal as well.

House Speaker Kirk Adams, R-Mesa, said Friday that Brewer's actions created "false hope" because the governor couldn't just unilaterally pick how much the state will spend now on education and health care. Even her own veto messages acknowledge spending levels are far too high and the Legislature will have bring them down, no matter what happens in the future with the property tax or her proposed sales tax.

The immediate issue for lawmakers is that Brewer's veto of the state property tax repeal also blocked a variety of other steps intended to shore up state revenues. The state property tax is expected to raise annually $250 million to $300 million, which would roughly match the restored funding. However, the loss of other measures in the same bill means the state would bring in only an additional $44 million. Brewer has called on the Legislature to meet in special session by Sept. 30 to again adopt those other steps so she can sign them into law.

Rep. John Kavanagh, R-Fountain Hills, said last week Republican lawmakers are unlikely to go along because of the property tax issue. But lawmakers refusing to again adopt budget-balancing steps they support just because they are mad at the governor would be the height of arrogance and irresponsibility.