OUR VIEW
What to buck from state budget?
Despite healthy surplus, some worthy proposals must be left out of the funding pie
AARP and the Area Agency on Aging are promoting a budget request from Gov. Janet Napolitano to increase spending for better care for older Arizonans. In isolation, the request seems quite reasonable — $8.5 million to provide 3,000 seniors with in-home care to keep them out of more expensive nursing homes, and $1.5 million to hire 30 more people for the agency that investigates reports of elderly abuse. And the total increase would be quite tiny compared to a predicted budget “surplus” this year of $800 million to $1 billion. But as Tribune writers Mary K. Reinhart and Dennis Welch reported this week, dozens of special interest groups are clamoring for a bigger share of the state budget pie. Lawmakers are weighing how much more the state should spend to keep pace with population growth, and how much of the dough should be returned to the taxpayers who have their own financial demands to meet. Leading Republicans say about half of the excess tax revenue is basically a bonus unlikely to be repeated next year. So the state shouldn’t fund ongoing operations with those dollars. And there’s plenty of competition for the remaining half, including a court mandate to improve education for students learning to speak English and public interest in addressing the federal failure to reduce illegal immigration. Taxpayer advocates are urging significant cuts in income and property tax rates as well, as it’s clear we have been overcharged for what it really costs to keep government running. Small, valuable ideas are likely to be squeezed out by all of these demands. But that’s the proper role of the legislative process, to identify and fund the most important priorities of our constitutional democracy while keeping our taxes as low as possible. More support for elderly care could easily fit onto that priority list, as long as we keep in mind that someone else probably will have to be turned away this year.