NO ON PROP 302!!

 This article appeared this morning in my local paper:

Prop. 302 would divert cash from schools to close budget gap

And this from The Coolidge Examiner on Sept 8th.  

Trivalleycentral.com

The voters in Arizona just passed Prop 100 to tax ourselves to offset the budget cuts to education and now someone wants to take the money away from another venue.

Taking tobacco monies specifically meant to go towards that goal would make Prop 100 null and void. It makes no sense to me especially since the Governor has gone on record as saying she "balanced the budget". If that's the truth then why does the legislature need to keep taking from the kids?


I was a client of First Things First before Gov Brewer robbed me of my childcare business. They work one on one with each client to ensure they get what is needed for their particular program in order to ensure health, safety and preschool education for children who's parents are struggling to make ends meet. It's a great program and the Arizona voters thought so enough to support the tobacco tax to get the program off the ground.

FTF has over 300,000 clients who would be affected by the repeal! Why do we always punish the children and the poor when they are the ones who need us the most.

You can go here to the Az Secretary of State voter information website and read the text of the proposed amendment along with pros and cons.

Remember it was the voters who wanted this program in the first place. Don't allow Prop 302 to steal it away from our kids. My kids always come first in my budget. This is how it should be in the state budget also.

Andrei Cherny 4 AZ State Treasurer 2010

As an Arizona criminal prosecutor, a nationally-recognized economic policy expert, and a businessman working with some of America’s top companies, Andrei Cherny has been a leader on the issues confronting Arizona’s economy in the 21st century. As State Treasurer, he'll be "the taxpayers' bulldog" in going after those who misuse government funds whether they're in Wall Street banks or in the state bureaucracy.  He'll work across party lines to use the powers of the office to make safer investments that spur new job growth; use audits to help reform government so that it works better and costs less; and help make Arizona "the Solar State " -- a national leader in solar energy jobs.

 

Click here to support  

Andrei Cherny's "Transparency in the Treasury" campaign ~

Because sunlight is the beginning of accountability and reform in state government.  Arizona taxpayers have a right to know which corporations are getting their education endowment dollars.  The State Treasurer's office should reveal to the public the full list of Arizona's stock holdings because citizens deserve the truth.

Republicans Ignored Alternatives to Inhumane Budget they Approved

Arizona State Sen. Paula Aboud felt it necessary to apologize for being unable to successfully argue an alternative to the budget passed last Thursday. The more humane alternative was a bi-partisan effort to keep needed services to the poor, disabled and children.

The governor's budget was not the only option for Arizona's citizens. A clandestine group of moderate Republicans and Democrats created an alternative budget proposal that resolved our deficit more humanely. But that budget, while it could have served as a negotiating piece, was ridiculed by the conservatives, discounted as nonsense and trashed.

Now many of these services are gone. Disadvantaged Children will be forced now to go to the ER (without the ability to pay) instead of seeing their regular doctor. 

What is nonsense is that the conservatives and the governor are dismantling funding to schools and social-service programs that are vital to our state. Cutting 45,000 children's health care wasn't enough; they eliminated the KidsCare program forever, costing the state $54 million in federal matching funds. Throwing 300,000 people off the Arizona Health Care Cost Containment System will now send them and 45,000 children into the emergency rooms for their uncompensated health-care needs.

Hospitals will have no choice but to pass on those costs to you and me through skyrocketing insurance premiums. That's a hidden health-care tax forced upon us by this budget.

Gutting AHCCCS and KidsCare cuts the payment to hospitals, adding huge stressors to the one economic sector that is providing new jobs to Arizona's badly hurting economy.

Instead of bringing jobs to our State, the Republicans have decided to insure job losses. It's disgusting, their blatant disregard to the citizens of Arizona. Read the post and then join the fight to get these selfish people out of office in November. If we don't fix this, many of us will have no alternative but to leave.

State Sen. Paula Aboud is the ranking Democrat on the Appropriations Committee. 

She represents District 28 in Tucson.