Four ASU faculty members and administrators were chosen to work with the Arizona Board of Regents to explore budget-balancing options for the Arizona Legislature.
The Fiscal Alternative Choices Team, or FACT, consists of eight members from the Arizona university system, two members representing ABOR and the former director of the Joint Legislative Budget Committee.
The team was formed at the request of Rep. Kirk Adams, speaker of the House of Representatives, and Sen. Bob Burns, president of the Senate.
Adams and Burns asked the universities to pool their resources to develop options other than budget cuts that will solve the state’s financial crisis, according to an ABOR statement released Monday.
“The goal ... is to look at the kinds of alternatives that exist for the state Legislature when they are trying to deal with the budget problems that exist for next year,” said Richard Stanley, ASU senior vice president and University planner.
Stanley was chosen for the team because of his knowledge of the university system’s role in the state budget. As the University planner, he oversees ASU’s budget management.
Stanley said the team members from ASU have met twice so far to prepare options for the full team in the near future.
It is too early to say what the team is considering to recommend to the Legislature, but they will make sure to study similar situations in other states, Stanley said.
The team will focus on fiscal policies in other states that attract businesses and other sources of revenue, he said, including tax policies and budgeting mechanisms.
Stanley said the current situation is very serious and long term, so the team must work to find a sensible proposal for the state.
“You could triple the tax rate and balance the budget without any cuts to the university system, but nobody would propose that as a policy,” he said.
Robert Mittelstaedt, dean of the W. P. Carey School of Business, will join the team because of his background in business.
He said the team is charged with providing the state with the most useful information for budgeting in the near future.
“It’s not a matter of just cutting [budgets],” Mittelstaedt said. “The whole idea is for the group to just look at issues they think might be helpful to legislators.”
Mittelstaedt said education and economic development are significant issues he hopes the Legislature is ready to address.
“It’s encouraging that they would like to have our input, and we will try to do that in a nonpartisan way,” he said.
The other members of the team from ASU are Dennis Hoffman, associate dean of the William Seidman Research Institute, and Robert Denhardt, director of the School of Public Affairs. Neither was available for comment.
When the team finalizes a proposal, a group of private-sector economists and public-finance experts will review the recommendations before they are sent onto legislative leaders, according to the ABOR statement.
Reach the reporter at adam.sneed@asu.edu.
