Thread by @JenLongdon

The budget dropped Tuesday. To be clear, this is a series of 12 Budget Reconciliation Bills (BRBs) with each addressing a policy "bucket." You can find them at azleg.gov HB2841 – HB2852 1/12

You've heard this budget called "skinny" "baseline" or "continuation" meant to make it seem harmless. It keeps the agencies funded and allows the state to continue its work uninterrupted by the legislature. It is ANYTHING BUT harmless. Let's dig in… 2/12

First, Arizona is sitting on a $5 BILLION surplus in revenues, $1.57 billion available for ongoing long-term investments like education. Yet, the majority wants to just put it on a shelf and go home rather than address YOUR needs, Arizona. 3/12

Also, this budget would continue bad policy from last year including funding duplicitous crisis pregnancy centers, underfunding KidsCare and our public education system. See a pattern in all this underfunding? 4/12

Last election, you made it clear that education funding was YOUR priority. #AZGOP ignored YOUR voice & overturned #InvestInEd. $1 billion in the education bucket would fund needed repairs, buy needed equipment & fund community colleges. It's not there. 5/12

Take a drive in any direction in #LD5 to see the issue of unsheltered people has EXPLODED during the pandemic. Just a portion of the surplus would make a real difference with pre-eviction stabilization, rent support & sheltering our homeless, not in this budget. 6/12

WATER should be top of mind for all of us. tinyurl.com/59ztyaa8 We could invest to line canals, fund smarter crop irrigation, improve flood plains, expand conservation. Not in this budget. 7/12

If we wanted to go wild, we could fund a modest fuel tax rebate to assist with unanticipated fuel costs caused by the Russian invasion of Ukraine. 8/12

But, the majority is NOT investing in education, NOT investing in housing, NOT investing in infrastructure and NOT investing in YOU! They plan to ram this "Baseline” budget down your throats & call it a day. 9/12

After that, they plan to do Special Sessions to repeal the voter referendum to stop their flat tax scheme & replace it with a "new" version, silencing your voice at the ballot box and saddling the state with a $2 billion permanent tax cut for the wealthy. 10/12

An alternative is the so-called "Grand Bargain" – $900m in much-needed K-12 funding BUT with a private-school voucher expansion that could be disastrous when combined w/the flat tax. If AZ enters recession, what gets cut first? Education funding. It happened to all-day K. 11/12

We'll spend this week on a budget that doesn't address YOUR concerns & frankly, doesn't have the votes to pass, absolutely ZERO input by half the House. This is the hubris of 60 years of one-party rule. Cooperation & compromise are seen as capitulation. 12/12