Troubling Times for Arizona GOP

Arizona Senators and Representatives had barely closed the door on the passage of a budget plan when Governor Jan Brewer exercised her veto powers early this afternoon. Governor Brewer's line-item vetoes and subsequent call for a Special Session of the Arizona legislature marked a troubling continuation of the budget fight for FY'10.

There is no doubt why Governor Brewer decided to send the legislators back to the drawing board. She (or as some have said, her advisers) has stubbornly backed a one-cent sales tax increase to offset what would be hundreds of millions of cuts to state funding. Republican legislators, wary to the proposal at its commencement, have become adamantly opposed to any tax increase. Governor Brewer argues that this sale tax hike should be presented to the Arizona voters this November.

Governor Brewer has been extremely vague as to the reasons behind this acute need for a sale tax increase. According to the Governor, Arizona desperately needs the funds that would be raised with the passage and implementation of the increase. According to Republican legislators, a balanced budget can be produced by cutting some funds to various state programs and obligations. The members of the legislature put their money where their mouth was by passing a balanced budget plan for this upcoming fiscal year.

However, though Governor Brewer has repeatedly expressed to her listeners that a sales tax increase is necessary, she has not given the people of Arizona enough concrete evidence to support her claims. The need might be in existence given the state of affairs our previous Governor left this state in, but without coherent reasons, this tax increase proposal leaves people scratching their heads in confusion. A tax increase is always dangerous - especially when it is Republicans who authorize an increase - and without proof of its absolute necessity, it should be deemed as nothing more than dangerous.

Instead of working with the legislators and people of Arizona to either find another solution to balancing the budget, or explaining all the particulars of such a proposal, Governor Brewer has (in a sense) declared war on the Republicans in the legislature, thus putting her party at risk in crucial 2010 elections. Her resolute determination for the tax increase has left many officials within her own party confused and battle worn. From the outside, a public observer can see only infighting and inept work by Republicans. This is not the case, though - the Republican legislators have done their job and protected the people of Arizona from a shady, undefined sales tax increase.