Yesterday the Republic touted Janet Napolitano’s increased education spending and taxpayer-funded giveaway of campaign material … oops, I mean books for children (and letters for their parents). And then acknowledged that “she will leave the state still nearly last in the country for K-12 funding, with a high-school graduation rate of 70 percent and state universities burdened with students unprepared for college work.”
Of course the main goal is not to laud Janet Napolitano — after all, she’s leaving — but to attack Republicans, especially Secretary of State Jan Brewer, who would succeed Napolitano as Governor. So yesterday’s laudatory story was also mixed with “questions” about whether Brewer would undo all the supposedly valuable contributions to education made by Napolitano.
Today’s issue is the budget, and continuing the theme established yesterday, the headline is: “Uneasiness grows over how Brewer might cut budget.”
Who is uneasy? Not the taxpayers, who wonder how Napolitano managed to spend us into such a huge deficit so soon after winning re-election based on her supposed “handling” of the economy.
It turns out that “left of center” groups that always want more funding for social programs are the ones who are uneasy. And the concern over cuts is based on the reality that Napolitano was using borrowing and accounting gimmicks to pay for her huge spending increases, and now she is nearly out of gimmicks and places to borrow.
No matter who is Governor, Arizona’s constitution requires a balanced budget and cuts will be made. The current administration has begged, borrowed and stolen money to appear to meet that constitutional requirement. Jan Brewer would approach the budget with integrity and make the hard, fiscally responsible decisions that our current Governor has avoided. For this, she will be attacked as “cruel” and “heartless” by the Arizona Republic. Don’t believe it.