AFP: It's budget-cutting time, and Arizona's legislators will need your help

Dear Arizona Taxpayer:

Sen. Russell Pearce responded to departing Gov. Janet Napolitano’s State of the State address by saying, “She needs a math course.”

To see the quick math on how much spending can be legally reduced from Arizona’s Fiscal Year 2009 budget, check out this AFP Arizona blog post:

http://www.americansforprosperity.org/011309-quick-math-how-balance-fy-2009-budget

How much the Legislature and incoming Gov. Jan Brewer will actually reduce spending is another matter. They are under intense pressure from spending interests to maintain spending at the high levels established during the big-spending days of the past six years. There’s no such thing as a free lunch, so any alternative to real spending reductions means:

1) tax increases on Arizona families and businesses already suffering from the recession;

2) debt financing (which means increased taxes in the future, plus interest); and/or,

3) taking handouts from the federal government.

Option #3 is very likely, which is bad news for our children and grandchildren, because America is already deeply in debt. More federal debt will mean higher taxes for future taxpayers and/or an explosion in monetary inflation, which is a tax on the value of every dollar you have. Fast-forward to the 1970s.

That’s why YOU and all of Arizona’s grassroots taxpayer activists are so important. In a memo last week to the Legislature and to the Brewer transition team, we outlined how the FY 2009 and 2010 budgets and other key bills would be scored on AFP Arizona’s 2009 Legislative Scorecard:

http://www.americansforprosperity.org/files/afpazscorecardmemo010809.pdf

As soon as the reform bills start moving, we will start sending you updates on how many points your Legislators have accumulated. Our Legislators and our new Governor need to know that YOU are watching them, and that you are working with AFP Arizona to keep Big Government from growing and from doing more harm to the private economy during these difficult times.

For more information, and to keep up with all of AFP Arizona’s activities, be sure to visit our AFP Arizona blog page:

http://www.americansforprosperity.org/arizona/blog

For Liberty,

Tom Jenney

Arizona Director

Americans for Prosperity

tjenney@afphq.org

www.aztaxpayers.org

PS: For those who have made it this far… Kudos to Ernie Hancock and the merry band of agitators at Freedom’s Phoenix, for their new campaign to educate the public about the dangers of government debt. Using debt to put tax increases and inflation burdens on the next generation is the worst form of taxation without representation.