Everyone knows the first thing to do when you are in a hole is stop digging.
But despite a nearly $2 billion deficit, as Republic columnist Bob Robb put it recently, “Gov. Janet Napolitano’s approach to revenue crunches is to preserve spending as much as possible.”
Not everyone is whistling past the budgetary graveyard. The Republicans in the Legislature have passed a hiring freeze and a spending freeze. Both were vetoed by the Governor.
Dean Martin called a press conference to point out that the state is running out of money. The Governor insists the state Treasurer doesn’t know how much money the state has. You can see her angry, eye-rolling response here.
While Gov. Napolitano accuses Dean Martin of being political, her own political strategy is obvious — keep borrowing money, keep spending money you don’t have, avoid difficult spending cut decisions, and escape into the Obama administration while leaving a big financial mess behind for the next Governor.
Now the capper – in response to the mortgage foreclosure crisis, the Governor has sent out a blast email offering “Help for Those Falling Behind” on their bills. Uh, Governor … that would be us. And the more spending you allow, the further behind we fall.
