Hold the Phone
By Goldwater Institute: Steve Voeller (05/10/07)
Four-year funding proposal for bioscience sets bad precedent - Every year lawmakers and lobbyists fight over how to spend Arizona's revenue. Thanks to voter-approved initiatives, about 63 percent of state spending is on auto-pilot and unavailable for lawmakers to divvy up.
Lawmakers are certainly known to gripe (rightfully) about not being able to make budgetary decisions with that money and are reluctant (wrongfully) to make policy changes to programs on which that money is spent. Since much of the budget is hands-off, the value of the remaining 37 percent of the budget is higher than it would be otherwise. As the pie shrinks, there's a premium on the remaining funds.
So, as lawmakers from both parties carp about an ever-shrinking pot of discretionary money, there is no valid reason for the Senate to propose a four-year $100 million appropriation for the Arizona 21st Century Fund, a bioscience investment fund.
Let's forget for a minute the serious questions about whether or not the state should fund this organization in the first place. It is the responsibility of lawmakers, and especially members of the appropriations committee, to annually review state spending. A four-year appropriation is a free pass for this organization, commits a greater share of the budget, and sets a bad precedent.
Steve Voeller is president of the Arizona Free Enterprise Club.
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