AZ News & Blogs 5/20/2010

• The Ninth Circuit as a Denial of Service Attack on American Justice 
• The Supreme Court is expected to decide [today] whether to summarily overturn a Ninth Circuit Court ruling, hear an appeal of that ruling, or let the Ninth Circuit’s decision stand. The case involves Arizona’s k-12 scholarship tax credit program that helps families afford private schooling, which the Ninth Circuit found last year to violate the First Amendment.
• Supreme Court Should Call Out Ninth Circuit in Education Case 
• The case concerns an Arizona school choice program that has been serving low- and middle-income families for 13 years. The state grants a tax credit to individuals who donate to nonprofit entities that award scholarships for children to attend private schools — including religious schools. Yes, here we go again.
• The question — if a question that has been redundantly answered remains a real question — is whether this violates the First Amendment proscription of any measure amounting to government “establishment of religion.” The incorrigible 9th Circuit has declared Arizona’s program unconstitutional, even though there is no government involvement in any parent’s decision to use a scholarship at a religious school.
• Milking the cash cow: Sales tax hike sails through in fear-based campaign 
• Special interest groups including the Arizona Chamber of Commerce, and police, firefighter and teachers unions, spending more than $2 million on fear-inducing advertising, were able to defeat the anti-tax hike crusaders who had a mere $1,200 to wage their campaign.
• My quick takes on AZ Prop 100 sales tax hike 
• TUCSON -- In the State House I voted against referring Prop 100 to ballot, instead preferring a real budget solution, such as what I and House Democrats offered. I stand by that vote.
• Statement from Buz Mills on Passage of Prop 100 see also this video 
• For more than a year, 28-year career politician Jan Brewer called for the largest three-year tax increase in Arizona history - $3 billion. Tonight, Gov. Brewer got her wish. In the process, the governor solidified her legacy as the governor who raised taxes.
• The people were told that this sales tax hike would prevent large budget cuts. I’m afraid it won’t. The state still faces a $3.5 billion deficit. In order to fix that problem, across-the-board spending cuts are required, not tax increases.

Sheeple of AZ Steal More Money from their Neighbors

HornIt said it best:
People don't need to vote to "tax themselves". They can tax themselves whenever they want to by writing a check and sending it to the state. But nobody ever actually votes to tax themselves, they vote to tax others. They vote themselves the property of others. They are free to give their up to others any time they want to..........but they don't of course. Well, actually some do. Conservatives do it at twice the rate of liberals. It's called charitable giving as opposed to the kind of coerced government taking you and your ilk are so found of.


EX18C said:
It is what it is. Anytime I hear about "the children", "the teachers", cops or firefighters I immediately think B.S......scare tactics. I used to work for the government......there is plenty of waste that can be eliminated without raising taxes to pay for stuff.

See the analysis of the election here and here.

See how many sheeple live in your county with the results here.

AZ News & Blogs 5/18/2010 (Sales Tax Vote is Today)

• If the government tells you to be afraid, then you know you need not be afraid 
• Rejection would trigger $862 million of contingency spending cuts beyond those already included in the budget due to the state’s loss of 30 percent of its revenue.
• Most of the contingency cuts were aimed at education. Those include $428.6 million for K-12 schools, $107.1 million for universities and $15.2 million for community colleges and $4.7 million for other programs.
• Budget and school officials said rejection of the tax increase would produce larger class sizes, reductions in specialized instruction and layoffs and furloughs for teachers and other school workers.
• Elsewhere in government, predicted cutbacks tied to rejection of Proposition 100 included layoffs of Highway Patrol officers, transfers of 3,000 to 5,000 prison inmates to county jails, new reductions of payments to hospitals and other health care providers, and reduced services for developmentally disabled adults and disabled children.
• Proposition 100 opponents argued that the state hadn’t cut spending deep enough and that passage of the measure would keep spending at levels that the state cannot afford. They also said a tax increase would throttle the state’s ailing economy by stifling retail trade.
• My Thoughts:  Notice how the government always uses fear tactics to get what they want?  That's the way it's always been, they use these tactics to take our freedom away and they will continue to use the tactics to take our freedoms away.  Note how they did this with the anti-illegal immigration law that recently passed, they slipped into the law the ability to send all our personal ID information to the federal government and to stop us and ask for papers with no true cause.  Lets stop the anti-freedom politicians and vote no on 100.
• Where's all the money going for schools for the recent rise in taxes? 
• Most schools received a 10% increase in Maintenance and Operating (M&O) funding from higher 2009 primary property taxes.
• In March special elections were held so schools could add an additional 15% override to their M&O funding.  Overrides are part of secondary property taxes and are calculated on Full Cash Value.
• We need to find out where all the money is going before we raise taxes, worsen the recession, and further depress much needed economic growth.
• My Thoughts:  There is no end to the money hungry politicians!
• Lessons From Venezuela’s 21st Century Socialism 
• The accomplishments of Venezuela’s “Socialism of the 21st Century” are looking very much like those of old-fashioned socialism with basic goods shortages, high inflation, negative growth, blackouts, water rationing, the persecution of Hugo Chávez’s critics, plus skyrocketing crime.
• My Thoughts:  Socialism just doesn't work...the public schooling system in the US is socialism and has proven not to work.  It only dumbs down the population and recreates an anti-freedom-loving people.
• Supreme Court Further Reduces Constitutional Limits on Federal Power 
• ”turned an instrumental power, dependent on Congress’s other powers, into an independent power.”
• the Court did further damage to principled constitutional interpretation in citing foreign law as support for its holding that life-without-parole (LWOP) sentences are unconstitutional as applied to juveniles committing non-homicide crimes.  
• My Thoughts:  The government can now hold you forever in prison without due process and after you've served your entire sentence.  Wait, the government could already do that.  Time to wake up I suppose.

AZ News & Blogs 5/17/2010 (Sales Tax Reminder)

• Shocking Brewer Verbal Assault Video Should End Her Political Career  see also this article.
• This video is guaranteed to motivate the apathetic voter to rally to the “NO on 100” side and show up to cast their ballot in person on Tuesday.  
•  My Thoughts:  This article and video are bit inflammatory and you question the video makers intent but it does show the true colors of a statist.  A statist will never think the government has enough money and will always ask for more and beg for more if you ask them to cut the fat and lower taxes.  Why has AZ been able to lower taxes the last few years?  As seen in this post.  I don't know but it could be because of the increase in federal government funding to the state coffers?  They make us think we are paying less but truly are paying more.  It's been shown that the free market works better than government and that communities can figure out local problems for cheaper, so why do we keep giving big government more money to waste?  I don't know all the answers, all I know is that we don't need to be taxed any higher, we need to set ourselves free and the only way to do that is by lowering the vice grip that the government has over us.
• See this video on what else could be cut from the AZ budget. 
• Glass Houses  (Coyote Blog on Illegal Immigration and Trash)
• I was forwarded an email today, and I can’t honestly figure out the source since it is one of those that has been forwarded a zillion times, but at some point it passed through the Arizona 2010 Project. It consisted mainly of pictures of desert areas along major immigration routes that had been trashed by illegal immigrants. This picture is pretty typical....Well, it so happens my life is spent cleaning up public parks. My company’s mission is to privately operate public parks. A lot of that job is picking up and hauling away the trash. And I can tell you something with absolute certainty: This is exactly what a highly trafficked area in our great Northwest Forests or Seashore National Parks would look like if someone wasn’t there to pick up. Here is one example from a northwest forest, in Oregon.... 

Lopsided campaigns await Prop. 100 vote

• Lopsided campaigns await Prop. 100 vote 
• On one side of the Proposition 100 debate is a broad coalition with a seven-figure budget, organized rallies, signs on virtually every intersection and TV ads running statewide. On the other side is a group of vocal opponents with few resources, less than $100 in the bank and some “NO on 100” buttons.
• My Thoughts:  The article later on talks about how when the people don't want something it doesn't matter what money is spent, it will be voted down.  I hope that is true.  
• Yes on 100 and the other campaigns supporting the ballot proposition have raised at least $1.6 million, according to the Secretary of State’s Office. Groups as disparate as the Arizona Chamber of Commerce and Industry, the Arizona Education Association, the Professional Fire Fighters Association, the Gila River Indian Community and Blue Cross Blue Shield of Arizona have all made sizeable contributions to Yes on 100 and have lent their names and support to the campaign.
• My Thoughts:  All these organizations must be tax feeders, I don't understand why else they would want to pay more taxes.  That brings up the question, if you are receiving money from the government and this proposition would cut that money off should you be allowed to vote on it?  I don't think you could morally vote on it unless you were voting no since you are basically voting to have the gestapo steal other people's money for your own gain.

AZ News & Blogs 5/13/2010

• New Law Reins In Property Tax Break Favored by Cities 
• Cities will no longer be able to give lucrative property tax breaks lasting a half century or more to hand-picked developers because of a new law signed Tuesday by Gov. Jan Brewer....The reforms will roughly double the payments that designated builders provide instead of property taxes and will cut in half the normal length of leases with cities, which have already taken developments valued at more than $2 billion throughout Arizona off the property tax rolls.
• Critics have pushed since 2008 to scale back or scrap the law, arguing a better approach than doling out tax breaks to a few large developers is to lower everyone’s property taxes. However, opposition from cities and developers with GPLET properties had stalled reform talks.

• It's Time to End Policing for Profit in Arizona 
• In Arizona, police can seize your property, sell it, and keep the money to fund their own budgets without so much as charging you with a crime. Under civil forfeiture laws, police and prosecutors can even seize your property after you've been found not guilty of a crime.
• Who Is Fighting (Or Helping) Whom In Mexico’s Drug Wars? 
• “Plata o plomo” (which literally means “silver or lead” and refers to how officials are either corrupted or killed by drug lords) has long been a common feature of the drug war in Latin America. It is not surprising that multi-billion dollar cartels corrupt the officials who are supposed to fight them. What is surprising is some people in Washington still believe that this is a winnable war.
• ICE rescues 3 Salvadoran kids held in Phoenix area 
• Federal authorities say they have rescued three Salvadoran children who were being held hostage by suspected human smugglers in the Phoenix metropolitan area.
• Brewer: No tax cuts while asking for tax hike 
• “I’ve been on the record saying that there is no way that we’re going to ask the people of the state of Arizona to vote for a temporary tax, and then come back and do business tax cuts,” Brewer said.
• Brewer vetoes light bulb bill, signs dozens more 
• Here are the bills Brewer signed:
• H2627; county transportation excise tax; transit
• H2629; self-defense; political subdivisions; weapon records
• H2653; intergovernmental agreements; separate legal entities
• H2661; statewide water augmentation authority; study
• H2668; voting information; postsecondary students
• H2722; schools; funding; nonresidents
• H2725; education; omnibus
• H2731; high schools; graduation; board examinations
• H2733; department of education; data collection
• H2003; revitalization districts
• H2037; secretary of state; business services
• H2113; provisional community colleges; property transfer
• H2133; air quality nonattainment areas; designation
• H2257; municipalities; counties; taxes; fees; notice
• H2281; prohibited courses; discipline; schools
• H2287; accommodation schools; levy limit recalculation
• H2385; schools; ADM calculation
• H2428; county zoning hearings; appeal
• H2450; water and wastewater charges; payment
• H2504; GPLET; lease records and reporting
• H2545; professions; dismissed complaints; records
• H2596; free exercise of religion
• H2618; trustees; release and reconveyance deed
• H2626; deeds of trust; foreclosure procedures
• S1254; research; development; production; tax credit
• S1308; schools; instruction; dating abuse
• S1351; appraisal management companies
• S1375; contractor payments
• S1411; dairy farms; zoning; agricultural purpose
• Brewer vetoed the following bills:
• H2337; Arizona manufactured incandescent lightbulbs; regulation
• H2462; private property trespass towers
• H2475; riding between lanes; motorcycle operations
• H2240; recovery audits; public funds
• H2502; taxation of solar energy property
• S1154; underground storage tanks

AZ Brief Blogs and News 05/07/10

Immigration 

• Mormons and Anti-Illegal Immigration Bill see also Comment on SB 1070 by a Mormon from Mesa
• Dan Carlin on the recent immigration bill in AZ and how it makes no difference or Show 175  
• Alianza Hispano-Americana (by W. Lane Rogers)  

Speed Cameras  

• Highway Cameras Contract Canceled see also Kudos to Camerafraud.com

Sales Tax Increase

 Yes On 100:  Support Schools and Public Safety

• My Thoughts:  It is interesting to see the signs every where.  When Chino Valley School District was trying to do the over ride they also had plenty of "yes for the over ride" signs but none against.  The over ride was still voted down.  I think that shows the great independent and anti-tax/government sentiment of rural Arizonans.  Let's hope the whole state feels the same when it comes to proposition 100 and that it is voted down.  The last thing we need is more money stolen from the people.  As the sign mentions the support of schools and public safety...these two things are already supported.  We don't need to pay more for things that already receive enough money. 

• Arizona needs tax cuts, not increases, to boost economy (Opinion by John Munger)  
• Tax Increase (Prop. 100) would create larger deficit according to Joint Legislative Budget Committee 
• Blog for AZ has this analysis link on AZ taxes (BFA says we need more taxes) 
• My Thoughts: Since the federal government makes up 36% of Arizona's budget you can say our tax burden is that much higher.  So adding in 36% we have x as the share of the federal government's tax burden on us, so x/(8.5+x)=36% (where 8.5% is the average Arizonan tax burden, including cities).  The federal tax burden comes to 4.78%.  Adding those two numbers comes to 13.28%.  I know I make a lot of assumptions that are false to come to this number but it gives a very rough estimate of what are true state tax burden is.  What is the right amount?  I'll post that later.  Also, see my previous post on taxes here.

Ethnic Bill

• More on ban of ethnic studies bill 

Climate Change 

• Ernest Hancock & Dr. Timothy Ball Talk on Climate Change & Politics

Sine Die 

• Sprint toward sine die
• Of the 352 bills approved by lawmakers in the 2010 regular session, nearly 40 percent of them got their final thumbs-up during the two-day sprint toward sine die that saw lawmakers work late into the night in order to wrap up the year’s work. 
• 
  

AZ Brief Blogs and News

• Promise That Higher Taxes Will “Protect Education” Rings Hollow
•  Apparently 10 years ago the state asked us to do the same thing we are doing now but all it lead to was a bloated bureaucracy.  Also, watch the short video included in the above link.
• My Comments:  In a free market school system we would see more aids than teachers but not wastefully like we see in AZ.  See this article on public school systems and regression to the mean.
• Raza Studies
•  Apparently down in the Tucson area students receive special education on how Latinos are hated.  Legislation HB 2281 is being proposed to stop this type of education.
• Here's the summary "HB 2281 prohibits a school district or charter school from including courses or classes that either promote the overthrow of the United States government or promote resentment toward a race or class of people." 
• My Comments:  It would be interesting to hear the other side of the coin for this one, sorry I don't have any links for you, if anyone has one please put it in the comment section.  In a free society, or education, people would be left to alone to learn what they want to learn, or what their parents would want them to learn.  To truly fix the problem we need to have private schooling across the board and government needs to stay out of education.
•  Dr. Gosar Calls on Congress to Enact Law Limiting Citizenship
•  "the legislation would limit citizenship to children born to parents who are (1) a U.S. citizens or nationals; (2) a lawful permanent resident alien whose residence is in the United States; or (3) an alien performing active service in the U.S. Armed Forces."
• Backers of the bill includes: Dr. Paul Gosar, CD1 Republican primary frontrunner, Trent Franks and John Shadegg.
• My Comments:  I'll have to look up the 14th amendment and remind myself it's ramifications for citizenship.  I remembered I don't have my constitution book right now.  Maybe I'll offer an opinion some other time on this one.
• Anti-illegal-immigration bill is still alight in the blogs
• Seeing Red criticizes a newspaper for it's comments on the killing of Bob Krentz.  Krentz was killed on his ranch near the Mexican border it was appears to be drug war related violence. 
• Coyote Blog shows graphs on the lower crime rate even with the higher illegal immigration in his post Chicken Little: The Supposed Arizona Immigrant-Led Crime Wave.
• Coyote blog has a link to Cato on the new national ID legislation in DC.  National ID has been tried to be passed for many years now, previous attempts have been nullified by the states.
• Cato comments on AZ Republics comments on the new bill. 
• My Comments:  In a free society we would have open borders like we have had in the past.  The government has really screwed things up and now are trying to put a band-aid on it instead of fixing the core problems which cause the illegal immigration problem like the drug war, NAFTA, etc. 
• More than 130 Clean Elections Candidates this Year
• My Comments: The headline should read:  130 candidate vie for theft of taxpayers money.

Schools Don't Need More Money

A while back ago Chino Valley attempted an override.  After doing some research I determined that they seemed to be getting plenty of money, considering they were getting $1,500 more per pupil then private schools according to one commenter and according to the research I did (it was $5,500 for high school and $4,000 for grade school) and the private school could pay for athletics and music on this budget.  Part of the reason public schools cost more is due to the bureaucracy and mandates by legislation.

Chino Valley school district averaged the following per pupil for the following years:
Year            Average Daily Attendance            Expenditures/Pupil/Year
2001           2415.7                                         $5,732
2002           2430.9                                         $5,828
2003           2504.7                                         ?
2004           2523.2                                         $6,186
2005           2599.4                                         $7,039
2006           ?                                                   ?
2007           ?                                                   ?
2008           2680.7                                         $7,189
2009           2705.6                                         $7,003
2010           ?                                                  ?

Imagine a teacher getting that money directly, we wouldn't have poor teachers anymore!  This is a good case for privatizing schools and getting bureaucracy out of schools.  We would then see some really good teachers make 7 figures and the bad ones finding new jobs!

See the following from "Seeing Red AZ" for more on AZ schools.  Also, see this article for a compelling case to just have privatized schools.  Also, see this commentary video from a successful entrepreneur on schooling and ADD.

Vote no on proposition  100 the 1% sales tax increase this May!

Sales Tax Increase

Here's some good comments on the new sales tax increase:

Sales Tax Increase? Easy Answer

State asks taxpayers for more money, but hasn’t cut out government waste

 Think about it this way. AZ schools average $7,000/student and if you say we should give them less they say they won't be able to pay for music, P.E., etc. The private schools charge $5,500/student and are easily able to pay for all of this. Time to privatize our schools, we should know socialism doesn't work by now.