AZ Lawmaker: Next Budget Won't Have Any Cuts
One of Arizona’s main budget-writers says he doesn’t expect any more spending cuts in the budget for the coming fiscal year. From Phoenix, KJZZ’s Mark Brodie reports.
MARK BRODIE: State lawmakers cut around a billion dollars in the current fiscal year’s budget, but the state has been bringing in more money than expected so far this year. House Appropriations Committee Chair John Kavanagh said earlier this month, he doesn’t think the next spending plan will have any cuts.
JOHN KAVANAGH: "We need to keep up funding population growths in K-12, AHCCCS and corrections, there may be a few other areas that need to be shorn up like CPS, and then the bulk of the money needs to be put into a hurricane fund, so in 2014, when the temporary sales tax goes away, instead of having a fiscal cliff, we’ll just have a little curb that we can easily manage."
MARK BRODIE: There are other ideas about how to spend some of the extra money. The governor wants to give seven million dollars to the state tourism office, and many lawmakers have discussed starting to pay off the state’s debt. The legislature’s 2012 session starts on January 9th, with the governor’s state of the state address.
