Democratic Diva

No, Janet Napolitano did not spend the state into debt.

17 May 2010 10:03 am
Posted by: Donna

She didn’t and everyone paying attention knows that meme is bunk but Arizona Republicans push it as though it’s received wisdom, as Thayer Verschoor did in his AZ Republic editorial opposing Prop 100.

From 1912 until 1997, general-fund expenditures grew from zero to $6.086 billion. Ten years later, they skyrocketed to $13.961 billion. The meteoric rise in Arizona expenditures under Gov. Janet Napolitano was especially onerous, with a $6 billion increase in just six short years.

What did we get with all of that “investment” in state government? A $900 million debt to Bank of America, a mortgaged state capital, a deficit of more than $2 billion, a loss of 300,000 private-sector jobs, an education system whose students are less prepared to enter the job market than at any time in our history, tens of thousands of home foreclosures, and an empty “rainy day” fund.

Verschoor is conflating government spending on the needs of citizens, which Republicans simply don’t believe in, with the current debt crisis the state is in. ‘Twas Janet “Spendy” Napolitano with her profligate ways who brought us these troubles, they say. I mean, did you see the way she ran up the debt while she was Governor?

Oh wait. Here’s the balance sheet from the last 10 years, straight from the JLBC. The arrows are helpfully provided by your Diva and note that FY2007 general fund expenditures were $10B, not $13B as Verschoor claims.

Spending did go up during Napolitano’s tenure but so did, what are those things called? Oh yeah, surpluses. And even in FY 2009 (last budget of Napolitano’s governorship), where the shortfall is projected to be $467 million, the spending was less than 2006 levels. The shortfall is the result of a poor economy and the structural deficit created by 20 years of ill-advised property, income, and corporate tax cuts. We have a revenue problem, not a spending one.

Verschoor and other conservatives don’t like government spending that helps people*. Period. We get it. But they ought to debate that view on its own merits and stop folding it into fiscal conservatism as if it is the same thing. And really, Thayer, you’ve got lot of nerve blaming the state of our schools on a former governor who wanted to invest more in them.

*Conservatives have no problem spending on stuff they like. You better believe that if Jan Brewer were running $13 billion budgets and most of the spending were going to private prisons and school vouchers, man, they’d be all over that action.