11/5/2009 2:22:00 PM State has $7 billion; spending to date
is at $10 billion Rep. Mason says budget is ‘smoke and mirrors’
VVN/Philip Wright
Rep. Lucy Mason (R-District 1) accepts a certificate of appreciation Tuesday from Janet Perry, assistant town manager, on behalf of the Verde Valley Leadership program.
CLARKDALE - "We have to reverse the thinking at the state Legislature," Rep. Lucy Mason (R-District 1) told the Clarkdale Town Council. She made a budget presentation to the council during a special meeting at 1 p.m. Tuesday.
Mason said the Legislature cannot keep thinking it needs to find more money. "It is smoke and mirrors," she said, "and all it does is create debt."
The Legislature must realize it has about $7 billion to spend, Mason pointed out. "Except right now, we're trying to spend $10 billion."
She said the Legislature uses gimmicks to make the budget look like it is balanced. "It is structural," Mason said. "We can fix this."
Mason said she prefers "Lump Sum" funding. That system, she explained, would give each state agency a figure "that is the total that they can spend." She recommended that the Legislature make those agencies prioritize from top to bottom every single program they have.
She said that a lot of programs within state agencies have no statutory authority, and she believes that many agency regulations are unnecessary.
Mason said that system was attempted to some degree when department directors were asked to budget their departments. She said some did a good job but others did not.
"Some agencies said 'You want to cut us, we'll make you sorry,'" Mason said. As an example, Mason said the Department of Economic Security is the state's largest agency with 9,000 employees. She said DES took away a large number of employees from Child Protective Services, and none of those positions were administrative.
State revenue sharing with towns and cities might be a target of legislators to help balance the budget. Mason said she does not want the Legislature to tamper with those shared funds. "I don't want to mess with that agreement," she said.
Mason said Arizona cannot count on the new housing construction market to pull the state out of this budget crisis. She said predictions are that the housing market will not recover until sometime between 2014 and 2017.
She said Arizona must diversify. New solar technology, wind power and geothermal energy are all ways the state can create jobs and business while creating sustainable energy sources. She said that APS spends more than $1 billion a year buying wind-power energy from Wyoming.
