Tuesday, December 23, 2008

Tom Patterson: Erase Napolitano's legacy

Tom Patterson, chairman of the Goldwater Institute, had a great article in the East Valley Tribune on Governor Napolitano's real legacy yesterday. Some excerpts:

Most of the precedents [Napolitano] established need to be reversed as soon as possible...Napolitano’s reaction to both lean and fat budget years (she experienced both) was basically the same: spend, spend and spend some more. The result, when the explosive growth in baseline budgets met today’s inevitable decline in revenues, is Arizona’s huge budget deficit which is highest in the nation (per capita)...Napolitano also earned the dubious distinction of being the first Arizona governor to introduce debt to balance general fund budgets.

The low point was in 2005, when the governor, after the Legislature adjourned, vetoed items she had agreed to accept in earlier negotiations.

Napolitano was so hugely popular with the major media that she was largely excused for such antics as intimidating (through an aide) a state commission into illegally changing “Squaw Peak” to “Piestewa Peak.”

She was allowed to hijack money meant for other projects to fund her pet project, the Western States Climate Initiative. She got by with claiming credit for the positive effects of tax cuts she had fought against.

Read the full article

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