Conservatives Favor Legislation of Taxpayer Bill of Rights

By Dennis Durband, Editor
February 26, 2005

State Rep. Russell Pearce (R-Mesa), chairman of the Arizona House Appropriations Committee, wants to run a “classified ad” past your eyeballs:

Wanted: five state representatives and 200 Arizona citizens to sign on to Rep. Pearce’s Taxpayer Bill of Rights (HCR 2029).

Requirements: You believe in fiscal responsibility … with your tax dollars.

Duties: Write to your state representative in support of the bill and sign in to a House committee hearing in support of it.

An Arizona House committee will debate HCR 2029 on Wednesday. Pearce has 26 representatives willing to support the bill, and it will take 31 to pass it. In a recent appearance at an event sponsored by the Arizona Federation of Taxpayers (AFT), Pearce asked for support to help him find five more votes in the House. And he urges 200 citizens to sign up to testify at Wednesday’s committee hearing, whether or not a person can attend. He says that liberals frequently do the same thing to drum up support for their bills.

The Taxpayer Bill of Rights aims to emulate the success of a similar law in Colorado. From 1997 to 2001, the Colorado Taxpayer Bill of Rights resulted in $3.2 billion worth of rebates returned to Colorado citizens. That figure came from the Colorado Department of Revenue and Michael New of the University of Alabama.

Chad Kirkpatrick, of the AFT, noted that the states with the highest tax burden experience the most severe budget problems. And people are leaving these states.

“The real problem is spending,” Kirkpatrick said of the State of Arizona. “Since 1994, state spending has doubled and that is unsustainable. Minnesota Gov. Tim Pawlenty recently said if you cut my budget and you suggest cutting police then you shouldn’t be in the legislature.”

Pearce said Arizona’s state spending problem is like an addiction. When told that certain funds are “only for an emergency,” the legislature is too apt to declare things “emergencies,” he said. “Last year, we grew the budget by 13.8 percent; that was absolutely outrageous.”

Arizona’s Constitution requires a balanced budget each year. However, the big spenders at the capital find ways to skirt that requirement.

“They say ‘that’s only for cash,’” Pearce said. “That means moving things around,” on the part of Governor Janet Napolitano and her liberal allies in the House and Senate.

“We have more government than we can afford,” said Pearce, who may be the only appropriations chairman to vote against a state budget bill – and he has done so three times, because he doesn’t want to put taxpayers at risk. “Out of $3 billion spent by the state, we have a lot of waste.”

This year, Pearce expects the legislature to do its best job of budgeting in several years. Despite the fact that the legislature is saddled by some spending requirements it cannot control. Some federal programs run through state funding, but conservative legislators have found it virtually impossible to get their hands on the figures. Governors control as much money as the legislature does, and Arizona’s governors – Republicans and Democrats – have resisted legislative attempts to learn the extent of those funds.

Pearce introduced his bill, called “Truth in Budgeting and Accounting,” because he believes that taxpayers have a right to know how their money is budgeted and what gimmicks are used to balance the state budget.

Taxpayers bear some of the blame for the state’s out of control spending as well. Many of the times when tax increases are posed as ballot initiatives, the citizens use their vote to approve them.

AHCCCS costs are expected to rise another $250 million this year, par for the course over the past four years. This is unsustainable, Pearce said. Arizona has more people on AHCCCS than in the K-12 education system.

Among the legislative gimmicks used to give the illusion of balanced budgets are fund transfers ($500 million last year), K-12 rollovers (the state missed a payment last year), ballot propositions, appropriations for university research and the Phoenix Civic Plaza, payments skipped by the governor (she labels them “payment holidays”) and others. Judicial activism and unchecked illegal immigration have severely stressed state budgets, as well.

Pearce said that if legislators understood their role, they would not repeatedly exercise a lack of discipline in state budgeting. “We need a Taxpayer Bill of Rights,” he argued.

Pearce does not expect a repeat of last year’s revolt by 13 moderate and liberal Republican legislators who conspired with Napolitano to increase spending beyond reasonable levels. Half of those legislators were fired during last year’s elections. Nevertheless, the six survivors are holding meetings to conspire against the fiscally responsible Republicans. Bill Konopnicki, of Safford, is leading that effort.

The renegades have received their share of emails from Pearce reminding them of party and founding era principles of government. “The greatest threat to freedom,” Pearce says, “is taxation.” He says that people elect lawmakers to spend their money wisely and citizens should not have to go to Phoenix to baby-sit legislators.

TABOR will cap spending and take some funds off the table and away from those with holes in their pockets. It mirrors its Colorado cousin and has been fine-tuned by the American Legislative Exchange Council.

Courts have ordered the state to provide hundreds of millions of dollars to teach English to K-12 students.

Pearce asked, “When do you stand up to the courts, if not now? It’s your job to learn English, not my job to teach it. You (the voters) passed English immersion. It’s a matter of what’s right. I’m not a racist.”

A former gubernatorial candidate, Libertarian Barry Hess, said he supports TBOR because taxation is “theft.”

Tom Jenney, formerly with the Goldwater Institute and now with AFT, concurs with those supporting TBOR. He said his organization is non-partisan and seeks support for TBOR from Democrats and Republicans.

“The minutemen were ready to grab their muskets off the wall and were ready in an instant,” Jenney said. “We need milli-second people who want sound, decent government in Arizona. We need everybody in this fight. Busloads come to the legislature and have picnics on the capital lawn to urge legislators to spend more money. Let your legislators know you will not vote for them if they do not support this bill. We are keeping track of legislative votes and those who don’t support this will have a hard time being one of our ‘Friend of Taxpayers.’”

Eighteen representatives have signed on to TBOR as co-sponsors. The bill states that if state revenue collections in any fiscal year exceed the maximum allowable amount under this section for that fiscal year, all of the excess revenues shall be paid as a refund to persons who filed individual income tax returns in that fiscal year, with exceptions. The legislature could also opt to credit all or part of the surplus revenue to a state budget stabilization fund.

Pearce urges citizens to sign up to speak at committee hearings in support of his bill. Citizens can register log-in privileges at kiosks the House and Senate buildings. Once registered with the state information system, citizens can then log-in electronically from home to comment on bills, whether or not they intend to actually appear at hearings. Pearce said that liberals have mastered this tactic.

The House Appropriations Committee will consider HCR 2029 in hearing on Wednesday.

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