There's 'mismanagement' in Arizona, all right. But not from us Democrats

Yahoo

17-04-2025

Matt Gress has mastered the art of failing upward.
But he's doing so at the expense of Arizona taxpayers, teachers, students and the developmentally disabled.
Gress previously served as Gov. Doug Ducey's budget director. Now, he represents Scottsdale and Paradise Valley in the state House of Representatives.
Ducey wasn't the biggest supporter of public education, but in 2020, there was a glimmer of hope for students — the passage of 'Invest in Ed,' which imposed a 3.5% surcharge on households making more than $500,000 per year.
This initiative would have put an estimated $1 billion into public education, but upon passage, Gress and Ducey began working to allow Arizona's wealthiest residents to avoid the surcharge and shift wealth further toward the well-off.
Once Republicans dismantled Invest in Ed, Gress' flat tax was free to sweep Arizona's progressive tax rate structure into a regressive flat rate of 2.5%, setting the stage to undercut public education, health care, and our vulnerable and elderly populations.
Gress ushered this huge tax cut through the Legislature knowing full well that it would benefit the richest Arizonans. In fact, that was the inspiration.
Rather than provide meaningful tax relief, households making $64,000 per year received nothing more than a single tank of gas — an annual savings that averaged just $47.
Meanwhile, state revenues were cut by an estimated $2 billion a year, so that the top 1% could keep an extra $30,000 in their pockets while teachers, who were making a little more than minimum wage, were forced to buy crayons and pencils for their students.
Not to mention that in 2018, when teachers, tired of being grossly underpaid, launched 'Red for Ed,' striking for higher teacher pay, competitive pay for support staff and a return to 2008 education funding levels, Gress and Ducey promised a win — a 20% raise over three years.
Yet, while most districts increased pay, only 43% of districts statewide were actually able to meet the 20% goal. Most tried to smear out limited dollars like peanut butter, to raise the salaries for all dedicated employees working in our public schools.
Despite these failures, Gress still plays a huge role in the future of K-12 education funding, and as the House Education Committee chairman, he's attempting to address the expiring Proposition 123, which temporarily increased funding for education from the state land trust.
Once again, he's promising raises to all 'eligible teachers,' leaving out support staff entirely. He's even unwilling to consider sensible reforms for the costly school voucher expansion that he and Ducey helped usher in, which would supplement what we lost because of their decisions.
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And instead of investing in education, Gress has voted for even more tax cuts, which would inevitably bleed into additional cuts for children with disabilities and group homes for foster care kids, when the agency programs are already in a shortfall.
Matt Gress' DOGE mentality has left Arizona's children without what they need to succeed.
While he and Republicans blame Gov. Katie Hobbs for Arizona's growing population and for rate increases to keep up with inflation, we all know who is responsible for the flat tax that artificially limits the state's ability to meet Arizona's needs.
And now, to make it worse, with the proposed Trump administration cuts to Medicaid, Medicare and the Department of Education, Arizona stands to lose hundreds of millions of tax dollars that pay for school lunches, disability programming for kids, urban and rural hospitals and health care, and university research.
Gress and Republicans have pushed their heads in the sand, saying they would not pass standalone legislation to cover the funding shortfall for our developmentally disabled kids.
They also continue to ignore the rising $1 billion price tag for school vouchers and unmet needs in our public schools. They disregard support staff in public schools, refusing to acknowledge that the people who feed and transport our children to their public school also deserve a living wage.
Then they blame 'mismanagement' for our budget hole, not our increasing population or inflation. On that, we agree.
Mismanagement of our state dollars has led to our current budget predicament. We just choose to hold responsible those who created this mess.
Sen. Lela Alston is the ranking Democrat on the Senate Appropriations Committee and the Senate Democratic Caucus chair. Reach her at [e-mail].
This article originally appeared on Arizona Republic: Republicans keep blaming us for their messes in Arizona | Opinion