Arizona faces a $1 billion deficit as the state Legislature opens the 2024 session

MicroWave@lemmy.world to politics @lemmy.world – 157 points – Arizona faces a $1 billion deficit as the state Legislature opens the 2024 session
apnews.com

A steep budget deficit caused by plummeting tax revenues and escalating school voucher costs will be in focus Monday as Democratic Gov. Katie Hobbs and the Republican-controlled Arizona Legislature return for a new session at the state Capitol.

The Legislative new year officially begins in the afternoon with the governor’s annual State of the State address The goal is to wrap up the legislative session within 100 days, but lawmakers typically go until May or June, especially when there are difficult problems to negotiate like a budget shortfall.

The state had a budget surplus of $1.8 billion a year ago. But it now has a shortfall of about $400 million for the current fiscal year and another $450 million shortfall the year after.

A tax cut approved by legislators in 2021 and signed into law by Hobbs’ Republican predecessor, Gov. Doug Ducey, replaced the state’s graduated income tax with a flat tax that took full effect last year. Arizona subsequently saw a decrease of over $830 million in revenues from income taxes, marking a nearly 30% decline from July through November.

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Classic Republican shitshow that democrats get blamed for and are responsible for cleaning up

Flat tax = let's make the poor pay for services instead of the rich who can afford it.

Yup, stupid Republicans continue to do the same stupid thing in the hopes that the same stupid thing will garner different results and then Democrats have to fix their stupid mistakes, Republicans will go into propaganda mode and bash Democrats for attempting to fix their mistakes going this is fine as the state burns around them, the electorate will buy into their propaganda because, well Americans are honestly overall stupid with no critical thinking skills because of Republican's successful assault on education, see vouchers, and elect Republicans back into office where they'll fuck up all of things that Democrats did to partially fix the Republican's dumbass repeat of history and move things even further into regressive territory.

We need great public schools. School vouchers to institutions that radicalize toward christo-facism should be ended. We need books, not guns.

Well, y'know, it's that damn big govt making all the problems. This is all their fault. Somehow.

Living in a Red State has got to be the closest thung to living in a cult. Who the fuck rationally thinks cutting taxes to the only motherfuckers with money will fix anything? Hey, you're fucking thirsty, right? Well here is what I'm going to do. I'm going to remove all of the lakes and sources of water! Isn't that fantastic? Once the water is all gone and safe in my reservoir it will be much better for us to drink! Fucken rubes.

This is the best summary I could come up with:

PHOENIX (AP) — A steep budget deficit caused by plummeting tax revenues and escalating school voucher costs will be in focus Monday as Democratic Gov.

Arizona subsequently saw a decrease of over $830 million in revenues from income taxes, marking a nearly 30% decline from July through November.

The voucher program lets parents use public money for private-school tuition and other education costs.

Concerns are growing in Arizona about shortages from the Colorado River system, which provides the state with about 40% of its water, and about shrinking supplies of groundwater and regulation in rural areas.

Calling drought the “challenge of our time,” Hobbs has limited housing development in parts of metro Phoenix over water concerns and canceled state land leases that for years gave a Saudi-owned farm nearly unfettered access to pump groundwater.

Worries about a record number of migrant arrivals on Arizona’s southern border could also be a potent issue for state lawmakers in an election year.

The original article contains 362 words, the summary contains 159 words. Saved 56%. I'm a bot and I'm open source!

No sympathy from me. These AZ voters turned down a ballot measure for a really amicable deal to build a new NHL rink for the Coyotes and decided to put a dump there instead. The voters themselves prefered a dump to a place of commerce. Congrats you got your dump, and I get to make fun of yotes fans for their dumpster fuck of an arena situation.

But many economists maintain that states and cities that help pay for new stadiums and arenas rarely get their money’s worth. Teams tout new jobs created by the arenas but construction jobs are temporary, and ushers and concession workers work far less than 40 hours a week.

https://www.pbs.org/newshour/nation/public-money-used-build-sports-stadiums

Ah yes an article about a different stadiums in a different sport from 7 years ago clearly is relevant to a deal made in the future with this now longstanding issue in mind. How much money is the dump making them? AZ fucked up and just assumed they'd get the yotes tax revenue regardless, but with the current move eyeing making a deal on tribal land, well the deficits add up.

Like a less popular sport like the NHL is going to be really profiable. Getting rid of the flat tax and school vouchers would be more effective.

Tax code change wouldn't really be very effective for an arena not on state land though so for the arena I was talking about I disagree. How much tax does the dump give them in it's stead? Seems like a straight downgrade.

Sounds lke the voters dodged a moneysink.

Over the last 26 seasons, the Arizona Coyotes have at times been bankrupt, ownerless, a ward of the N.H.L., the subject of relocation rumors, and, more recently, in a prickly relationship with the owners of their home arena. The team has long struggled to draw fans to its suburban rink,

https://www.nytimes.com/2021/12/17/sports/hockey/arizona-coyotes-glendale-nhl.html

Arizona's terrible NHL team is begging voters for $200 million to build a permanent home, but stadiums are consistently huge money pits

https://www.businessinsider.com/arizona-coyotes-tempe-new-arena-vote-funding-sports-stadiums-taxpayers-2023-1?international=true&r=US&IR=T

From your own source

evicted from its previous home in Glendale, can find a way out of this morass with a $2.1 billion plan to turn 1.5 million tons of garbage and surrounding area into a new arena with two hotels, a music venue, and housing.

Man how dare they ask for 200 million for a 2 billion plan that included cleaning up the area themselves and even adding housing instead of putting that burden on the taxpayers where it now rests again. Brilliant move. Its gonna cost as much or more to remove the trash and make the land available for any kind of non dump use.

Economists who have researched this topic for decades have found that the rosy economic impacts teams promise rarely pan out. "Though findings have become more nuanced, recent analyses continue to confirm the decades-old consensus of very limited economic impacts of professional sports teams and stadiums," the Kennesaw State University professor J.C. Bradbury and his coauthors concluded in a February 2022 review of more than three decades of studies on economic impacts of stadiums. Even when adding in social benefits from stadium investments, welfare improvements from hosting teams tend to fall well short of how much the government spent to obtain it. Put simply, the authors found, "the large subsidies commonly devoted to constructing professional sports venues are not justified as worthwhile public investments."

You're repeating general findings and applying them to a deal with specifics you refuse to understand or even respond too. 200 million barely covers the restoration of the landfill, and more of this offer was privately funded than any other stadium offers period. There simply has not been a better deal for the cities in any major american professional sport than this one, so if you really dislike stadiums seeping public funds maybe support the ones that use less of it. Still waiting to see how much it's gonna cost taxpayers to clean and reclaim that land on their own burden.

Rich people are not going to stop building stadiums, the government will not stop subsidizing rich peoples anything. This whole debacle says 'dont bother sweetening the deal, stick with what was working because if they're gonna say no, they will say no.'