Local lawmakers discuss fiscal shortfall

Discussion among local lawmakers at a legislative town hall meeting Friday quickly turned toward a budget crisis that has local state-funded agencies scrambling to figure out how to cope with funding cuts.
 
State Representatives Russ Jones and Lynn Pancrazi and State Senator Amanda Aguirre updated representatives from state agencies, local businesses and members of the public on the looming 2010 budget and the 2009 budget, which lawmakers are still making adjustments to.
 
Jones called the 2009 budget a "moving target," saying that it's "bad news, worse news and not so good news" when it comes to the state's budget crisis.
 
He said part of the problem began about four years ago when the state's budget grew because of additional revenue, in part created by the housing boom.
 
"At some point, we have to come face to face with the structural deficit," Jones said.
 
Aguirre said lawmakers are just now learning how the 10 percent lump-sum cuts to some state agencies from the 2009 budget are impacting the state.
 
Michael VanGuilder, executive director of the Saguaro Foundation, a state and federally-funded agency that provides services to developmentally disabled adults and children within Yuma County, said they just found out Tuesday about the cut. VanGuilder said the cuts go into affect March 1, which doesn't even give them two weeks to plan.
 
The contract for funding, he said, requires 30 days notice.
 
He said the Foundation might have to cut its Early Intervention program all together, and they've already laid off three workers with the program. And VanGuilder said they may need to lay off an additional 20 members of staff.
 
"We cut and cut and cut," VanGuilder said. "We can't cut any more."
 
Aguirre said lawmakers are "working hard to protect agencies."
 
"It's important that we don't balance this budget on the backbone of children and families," Aguirri said.
 
Jones said state lawmakers face an estimated $3 billion shortfall with the 2010 budget.
 
At the end of the meeting, there was some good news: more than $3.6 million dollars was awarded to help children and parents in the Yuma County area.
 
First Things First, a state program that helps fund local services that help families with children up to age five, presented Jones with the check that will directly benefit children and parents in Yuma County.
 
The money is funded through Proposition 203, a voter-approved state tax on tobacco.
 
Nadine Mathis Basha, First Things First chair, said "in these tough economic times, we can not take our eyes off these children."
 
"This money . . . is a demonstration about how the voters in Arizona feel about their children," Basha said.