8/7/2019 Brewer Vetoes Bill to Limit State Spending

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Brewer vetoes bill to limit state spendingBy Caitlin Coakley Arizona Capitol Times

Published: April 28, 2011 at 5:20 pm

By vetoing a bill that would have placed strict limits on how quickly government spending couldincrease, Gov. Jan Brewer has drawn the ire of conservative tax policy advocates.

The governor has thrown away a great opportunity to prove to the people of Arizo na that thestate government is serious about getting its fiscal house in order, said Tom Jenney, director of the Arizona chapter of Americans for Prosperity.

Under HB2707, the amount of money the state could spend would have been based onpopulation growth plus inflation, a formula that would, proponents argued, keep the state from

dramatically increasing spending during brief economic spikes.

Though Brewer has been a supporter of some sort of state revenue limit, she explained in herveto letter that she thought the mechanism in the bill was too restrictive.

We should learn from the state of Colorado that experimented with a similar measure, andfailed, she wrote.

In Colorado, the only state that has implemented the so-called Taxpayer Bill of Rights, orTABOR, provisions, the strict spending limits locked the state into a low baseline set during theeconomic downturn from 2001 to 2003. Such a scenario has been held up by opponents of

TABOR as its inevitable consequence.

The bill, sponsored by Rep. Debbie Lesko, R-Glendale, gained support among fiscal hawks andhad 41 co-sponsors in the House and Senate, including Rep. John Kavanagh, R-Fountain Hills.

I still think population -plus- inflation is a reasonable guide. I stand by my vote, Kavanagh said.But Im sure we can work out some mutually agreeable bill with the Governors Office. We justhave to iron out our differences.

In the past, Brewer has suggested a state revenue limit based on a rolling average of pastbudgets, which TABOR supporters have criticized as being too weak.

The problem with using a rolling average of past budgets is that the average of past budgets istoo high, Jenney said. We would simply be saying, Henceforth, we will be spending, onaverage, what we have been spending on avera ge. It doesnt look like much of a spendinglimit.

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However, there were a handful of Republican dissenters in the legislature. In the Senate, RichCrandall, R-Mesa, and Linda Gray, R-Glendale, voted against the bill. In the House, BobRobson, R-Chandler, and Heather Carter, R-Cave Creek, also voted no.

Robson said he shared the governors concern that the formula for setting the revenue limit was

too strict, and also worried about the effects on education.

When you set an artificial ceiling, it takes away the ability of the legislators to use theirdiscretion in setting the budget, Robson said. And thats what were primarily there to do.