Every once in a while, a solution seems so simple that we wonder why we didn’t think of it sooner (and sometimes we did).
For nearly three years now, we have heard of the enormous challenges involved in balancing our state’s budget. But thanks to an insightful interactive feature launched Monday by azcentral.com, we can all try our hand at filling the $1.1 billion deficit.
The options for making ends meet consisted of two obvious choices — cut spending or raise taxes. Nobody really wants to embrace either of these, but unfortunately we must.
When looking at azcentral.com’s budget balancing tool, we were surprised to see that it took just two options to fix the state’s shortfall. The items? Raising the sales tax by one cent and establishing slot machines at dog- and horse-racing tracks.
Though these can be controversial — especially the tax increase — it’s important to see these as fixes. The sales tax increase would raise a projected $1 billion, and establishing the slot machines would bring in $375 million a year. According to projections, this would fill the deficit and even leave us with an extra $225 million.
It seems a little too simple. With this surplus, we could restore the organ-transplant funding slashed from the Medicaid program and the behavioral-health funding for 31,000 mentally ill Arizonans.
We would also be able to give more children health care. The state would be able to open up enrollment for KidsCare, which is a state-federal program that provides health insurance for children in families whose income is at or below 200 percent of the poverty level.
These expenditures cost $1.4 million, $112 million and $20 million respectively. This would still leave us with a $91.6 million surplus.
Hear us out — we don’t like taxes. We just accept reality and realize that to really balance the budget, it will be a shared sacrifice from every Arizonan.
In doing so, we make the lives of this state’s residents better because we can take care of those who need help and invest in our children’s future.
A wide range of options exists for balancing the budget, and a tax increase and slot machines don’t have to be the answer. But the fact is we need to bring in more money instead of cutting every service the state has to offer.
The reality is that those who hold the majority in the state Legislature would balk at these ideas. Rather, they would cut state university funding by $170 million and cut the state Medicaid program in its entirety.
It’s true the temporary sales tax increase approved by voters last May hasn’t miraculously saved the state, but it has padded the blow to K-12 education and public safety. Plenty has been cut already, and while there may be more to slim down, our state needs to consider options that bring in money directly.
