Some rabid Republicans would prefer to completely shut down state government on July 1st as that has been their overriding quest for decades. Ideologically, they see no purpose in most governmental programs so this would be a chance to see which ones the state could do without regardless of the social or economic pain inflicted on the residents of the state. Most public schools are scheduled to resume in mid August so it may be appropriate to work something out before then. The shut-down might be continued beyond August by those extreme Republicans who view public education as seditious and who prefer a completely privatized system.

Too many Arizonans and their political representatives, along with most Americans, do not want to pay for the governmental services we need or want. We falsely believed someone else would actually and always pay for them. For decades, Arizona and the U.S. got away with such an irrational attitude, often through deficit spending. It seems instructional that the two states with the most dysfunctional state governmental budgets today are Democratically-controlled California, and Republican-controlled Arizona. (Governor Schwarzenegger is really a closet Democrat – not a Republican.) It’s so comforting for cynics to prove to all Americans that both Democrats and Republicans are completely irresponsible at both the state and federal levels.

This fiscal fantasy world is particularly pervasive among older white retirees and the business community who think that they already pay enough taxes (which they don’t) and because they raised children elsewhere, so they no longer have any responsibility to continue to do so after they come to Arizona. Too many greedy businessmen think they can take advantage of the many protections and benefits of U.S. society without having to contribute something back in taxes.

Arizona is actually a relatively low-tax state in many respects when compared to the rest of the country. It has one of the lowest per-pupil spending on K-12 education in the U.S. California has been just the opposite with respect to educational support at all levels. But how they got there is almost besides the point at this messy juncture because neither has the will to tax itself to pay for future educational support and public programs or have the courage to seriously consider its overall state government.

Over the past 3 decades, due to business growth in several sectors, plus the strange and unique Arizona industry known simply as “growth,” Americans of all ages moved to the state, mainly from California, Texas, Illinois and a few others. This has also shifted Arizona to purple politically with many more Democrats residing in and around Tucson and Phoenix. Many political and media experts have suggested that had the Republican Presidential candidate not been favorite son Senator John McCain, Arizona would have gone for President Obama. Through the gerrymandering of state legislative districts, Republicans still control both houses of the Arizona Legislature. Of course, Arizona voters and many more residents who don’t vote must also take responsibility for re-electing most of the extreme morons in the state legislature.

Seeing the economic boon in Arizona, California, Texas, and other states, and noticing the U.S. Federal government had no border controls or sane immigration policies, Mexicans also flooded over to share in the prosperity. In good times we simply ignored the issue as we did so many other underlying problems. When the economy tanked last year, all the ignored messes rose to the forefront and now must be addressed. Procrastination is a pervasive human fault.

Most of the Mexican-American people in Arizona are native-born U.S. citizens but a significantly large chunk of people are undocumented and illegal. The same holds true for California and many other states. At no time in U.S. history has one group of immigrants so overrun certain Southern and Western States without all being legally processed. Their sheer number permits far too many to remain in Spanish-speaking ghettos because of the multitude of businesses and media that cater to them in their native culture and language. Normal historical assimilation has not occurred as quickly within this group when compared to all prior immigrant groups who settled in the U.S.

There are other illegal immigrants from a variety of other countries living in the U.S., but most have simply overstayed legally-issued visitor or work visas. However, compared to the sheer number of illegal Mexicans, their total number is a mere rounding error. The U.S. illegal immigration problem is essentially with people from Mexico.

Most foreign countries do not share a 1,000-mile-long open border with the U.S. which can be easily traversed by foot, car, train, bus or truck without detection. Mexico for decades has shipped its economic problems and many unemployed poor to the U.S. in order to maintain civil and social order. Too many greedy U.S. businesses, unwilling to comply with minimal labor laws, were more than happy to hire all the illegal Mexicans that showed up at their personnel offices. To blame the illegal Mexicans who struggle to support themselves and their families is generally missing the big picture. The U.S. and Mexican governments, to placate their domestic and influential business communities, let this situation expand to an intolerable level now.

Another problematic issue is that Mexican-Americans in the U.S. simply have far more children than other Americans. They even have U.S. birthrates at more than twice the rates of Mexicans living back in Mexico. It’s one thing to be modest, have 2 children, and try to inconspicuously fit into a new society. But to have 4 or more kids, and demand endless governmental assistance when living on low incomes or illegal sources, is simply galling to many of people in Arizona and the U.S. To put it kindly, some Mexican adult immigrants have been too egregious, pushy, and in-your-face abusers of public support systems designed for limited use during times of economic recession, not as a normal means of living. This problem is national but Arizona and other states must simply deal with the bulk of it locally. These facts have to be recognized for what they are. They cannot be dismissed with charges they are somehow “biased” or a result of any specific prejudice for a particular group of people.

Even if the birthrates among European Whites, Blacks, Asians and Native-Americans match those of Mexicans, Arizona will still be financially pressed to raise many more children than most states, each one for about 20 years, before they become contributing tax-paying residents. In an increasingly competitive globalized world economy, an educated workforce is even more important to the long-term success of any city, region, state or country.

Under the U.S. Constitution, all children born on American soil are U.S. citizens who must be educated, housed, fed and cared for by the rest of us if their parents are unable or unwilling to do so. Some parents may not pay any taxes except sales taxes due to their illegal status or extensive poverty, but the children are blameless.

Children are every society’s untapped greatest resource. Their ongoing physical and intellectual well-beings cannot be ignored regardless of the mistakes made by their parents. We need to produce good citizens who will eventually have well-paying jobs, pay taxes, and contribute to the future success of our entire society and state.

Our retirement and healthcare systems are simply funded by having more people pay into the systems than those taking benefits out. These are inter-generational contracts that must remain blind to the color, ethnicity, religion, race and nationalities of the participants in order for any society to function. We should find ways to ensure more people pay taxes into these systems by creating a fair and rational national immigration policy that encourages more legal immigration and flexible worker and student visas for people from all countries around the world. However we should have clear employment laws to which all employers must be held accountable.

Arizona has to design a fair and rational state tax system devoid of political and economic ideologies. It has to pay for fully-functional and responsive state and local governmental structures that meet real-world needs and the foreseeable demands of the future. It cannot be designed by selfish and short-sighted extremists from either political party, or by the minority of residents who feel that most taxes are an anathema. It must be designed to simultaneously (1) maintain and expand our transportation, energy and educational infrastructures, (2) encourage existing and new business activities in diverse industries, (3) maintain a safe living environment, a fair judiciary, and overall public order, and (4) produce a highly-educated workforce for the 21st Century.

Arizona must create a balanced tax policy imposed rationally and fairly on all real estate, incomes, sales, services, personal and business property, estates, special uses, and excise taxes on particular products. The tax system has to provide a fairly steady stream of revenues despite likely fluctuations in overall economic and business activities. State costs for unemployment, healthcare and social services generally increase when there are recessions, and enough state tax revenues must be set aside during good economic times for use during the difficult times.

The Republicans who still control Arizona cannot angrily, rashly, ideologically, and drastically cut educational support for K-12, community colleges, and the 3 State Universities, along with social services and infrastructure investments, and expect this state to emerge healthy and ready to compete globally at the end of this deep recession. Some conservatives are so extreme as to believe that the whole idea of state government should be attacked and destroyed in some sort of visceral reaction to what they perceive is occurring in Washington, D.C. under Democratic control. Perhaps if they make things so miserable, they believe they could encourage a massive population exodus from the state so they no longer would have to provide any public services. They live in a fantasy world that they only have to govern on behalf of 1 million people when in fact the state has over 5.5 million residents and it is still growing steadily.

Fortunately all the Republicans in the legislature must stand for re-election in 2010. Then the voters will be able to pass judgment on their prior actions. Finally the Arizona electorate will have to grow up and take responsibility for the mess they helped create.

 

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