An investigation by the Arizona Republic revealed that the biggest bonuses were for $10,000 each and went to 10 separate people, eight of whom are already making $125,000 a year. Smaller bonuses, still in the thousands, were given to 12 others. The money was described as retention bonuses, which at least makes some sense. They were meant to keep staffers with Brewer for the final year of her term as governor. After all, what else could motivate them to stick with the woman? The Brewer administration has no problem flinging around taxpayer money as long as it doesn’t benefit taxpayers. In December, the Republic also revealed that state officials gave pay raises, some topping 40 percent, to 169 employees without the Department of Administration’s approval, which is required by law. The mounting deficit has everything to do with irresponsibility. Brewer and the Republican-dominated legislature have cut taxes repeatedly over the years, and many of these cuts have been geared at corporate taxes in particular. As a result, they’ve cut certain services to the bone — frivolous expenditures, like education for example. The state’s Republican mantra has been a familiar one: corporations would flood to Arizona thanks to the tax breaks and create so many new jobs that revenue would flow like a river into state coffers. Unfortunately, it did flow like an Arizona ‘rivers: being little more than dry creek beds. As a matter of fact, the recovery from the recession that has been taking place across the nation has largely left Arizona behind. According to a new report in November, Arizona ranks next to last in recovery of jobs that were lost during the Great Recession. Only Nevada has a worse record. And one underlying problem: why would corporations want to invest their resources in a state that doesn’t even bother to give its population an adequate education? And why wouldn’t state officials recognize that this issue might be a problem?
Posted on: Sat, 03 Jan 2015 01:51:47 +0000
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