The old friend of the family was expecting a visit from Aaron, a young man she had not seen since moving away many years ago.
Her memories were of a 5-year-old tyke barely 3½ -feet tall. Twenty years later, he had grown into manhood. She knew that of course, but as he strode through the door she still couldn’t help but exclaim, “My, how big you have grown!”
Indeed, Aaron had filled out from the skin and bones of his boyhood, to the point of him being concerned about his waistline. But the fuss about his size caught him by surprise. By most any standard, he couldn’t be considered big. He always had been something of a peewee and, despite his growth, he was still dwarfed by his friends and colleagues.
So it is with Arizona’s state budget.
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from Arizona State Spending: The Big Or Small Of It, March 10, 2011
Arizona’s budget is out of whack. Is that because, as some believe, the state is not taking in enough revenue? Or is it because, as others insist, the state is spending beyond its means?
We’ll look at spending in the near future. This edition of Thinking Arizona addresses the revenue side of the ledger.
The analysis shows that Arizona’s tax burden, looked at on a per capita basis, is among the lowest in the land. To be precise, it ranks 44th of the states. The details reveal much the same picture. Arizona ranks well into the bottom half on virtually every revenue dimension.
That should cheer those for whom less government is the objective. Meanwhile, others might see it as a means of climbing out of the deep hole in which we find ourselves.
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from Arizona State Revenues: Less Could Be More, January 29, 2011
