PHOENIX—The Arizona legislators are considering a Republican-backed rule change to implement a new spending limit for state government, restricting the size of increases above a base already lowered with cuts to health care and other state services during the recent budget crisis.
Rep. Justin Olson, R-Mesa, said the change to House rules, if adopted, would help the state avoid future budget bubbles in which unsustainable spending increases lead to painful retrenching during downturns.
Critics said the limit would lock in state spending at levels below what is needed for important services. They also criticized Olson’s desire to use a House rule to implement the change.
Olson on Monday continued to explain the proposal to fellow Republicans after floating the idea last week. He said he hoped for an early vote by the full House.
Lawmakers’ centered their budget-balancing efforts last year on spending cuts. Those included eligibility reductions in the state Medicaid program and slashing the state’s inflation funding for public schools.
The change to the House’s own rules would bar the chamber from taking formal votes on appropriations bills for state spending above adjustments for population and inflation increases.
The proposal rule change represents a back-door attempt to revive a long-stalled proposal that is modeled after part of a set of state constitutional provisions approved by Colorado voters in 1992 to restrict state spending.
The Arizona House rule is being proposed a year after Republican Gov. Jan Brewer vetoed a bill with the same proposed spending limit. She said that Arizona needs an effective limit to protect against spending bubbles but that the proposal would be too restrictive.
Previous proposals, which never reached the ballot, would have asked voters to put the limit in the Arizona Constitution.
In response to the recessions in the early 2000s, Colorado voters in 2005 approved a legislative referendum allowing the state to retain revenue above the TABOR limits for five years. The Colorado limits took effect again in 2011.
Adopting the Colorado-style restrictions would hurt schools and other programs because needs for government services, particularly in economic hard times, can exceed inflation and population increases, an Arizona advocacy group for social services said.
By locking in state spending at low levels, “Arizona will fall further and further behind when other states begin to climb out of the crisis,” the Children’s Action Alliance said.
House Minority Leader Chad Campbell, D-Phoenix, said putting the restrictions in a House rule undermine the regular legislative process.
“You’re taking the public out of the equation altogether and you’re dictating how the budget is crafted,” he said.
Olson said his proposal boosts transparency by requiring lawmakers to make a public decision to override the proposed rule change’s limits on spending increases.
“This shines light on the budget process,” Olson said.
