Scranblewatch Q&A with Doug Sposito on the Budget

Doug Sposito is one of four Republican candidates running for a seat in Legislative District 30 House of Representatives. We asked him if state spending is too high, too low, or just right in the following areas:

Education:

Too low.

English Language Learning Programs:

Too high.

Emergency preparedness:

Too low.

Environment:

Too low.

Health care:

Too low.

Law enforcement:

Too low.

Transportation and highway infrastructure:

Too low.

Welfare:

Too high.

Universities:

Too low.

ScrambleWatch Q&A: Republican Frank Antenori on the Budget

Frank Antenori is running for a seat in Legislative District 30 House of Representatives. We asked him if state spending is too high, too low, or just right in the following areas:

Education:

Too low. It’s pathetically too low. It’s hurting our economy.

English Language Learning Programs:

I think the current funding, without the court order, is adequate. If we are forced to spend the amount this arbitrary judge is deciding, it would be too much. Further, I don’t think the feds have any business telling us how to do our English Language Learning Program. I believe in immersion–it’s fast and it’s a lot cheaper then other programs. I would support Tom Horne’s lawsuit to overturn that decision in the Supreme Court.

 

Emergency preparedness:

Way too low. We are sitting ducks. We are getting Homeland Security money and the governor is buying T-shirts and Q-tips with it. I’m not kidding; she misappropriated Homeland Security money… They got burned on it and now they are doing the right thing.

Environment:

This is near and dear to my heart because I hunt and fish. I think we need to spend what’s necessary to keep the environment stable and to keep it clean. That number fluctuates depending on what’s going on. We need to spend money on mine reclamation. It’s a safety issue as

ScrambleWatch Q&A: Republican Sharon Collins on the State Budget

Republican candidate Sharon Collins is running for a House of Representatives seat in Legislative District 30 . We asked her if state spending is too high, too low, or just right in the following areas:

Education

We need to prioritize the money. Technology is where I would distribute more of it. We’ve got to get into the 21^st century.

English Language Learning Programs

The problem is that we are mandated by law. The Legislature just passed a law that we have $40 million we have to spend. The Superintendent is taking that to court because he says the school districts have federal mandated money and if they could use that money, then we could offset and give them less. He suggested maybe $20 million.

Emergency preparedness

I don’t think that’s a problem. The National Guard is our armed force. The governor has the authority to lay out the National Guard if she declares an emergency. If the county had a problem, you have to go A through E to get some emergency funding. Then the governor would go to the feds.

Environment

Stick with me because of the Rosemont Mine situation is in my district. When I ran for mayor of Tucson, we had the water wars. I was on the side that the CAP water should go to the mines and

Hershberger Vs. Melvin: GOP Split Ends in LD26

Nobody gave stalwart Republican Al Melvin much of a shot two years ago when he launched his campaign to knock out then-Sen. Toni Hellon.

A well-connected moderate Republican, Hellon had served the district, which sweeps from Saddlebrooke down through Oro Valley and across the Catalina Foothills, for three terms.

Melvin, who moved to Saddlebrooke just six years ago after retiring from a career as a Merchant Marine, used more than $58,000 in public campaign funds to hammer Hellon on issues ranging from abortion to border security, calling her out of step with GOP principles. On Election Day, he crushed her by 13 percentage points.

Unfortunately for Melvin, 2006 was a Democratic year–and the Democrats successfully painted him as an extreme conservative, just as he’d painted Hellon as an extreme liberal. Even though Republicans hold a voter-registration edge, Melvin lost the general election to Democrat Charlene Pesquiera, a political rookie who won by just 455 votes.

Pete Hershberger

The race was close enough that Melvin is back for a second run against another well-known moderate: Rep. Pete Hershberger, who has reached his limit of four terms in the House of Representatives this year. Hershberger has deep roots in the district. He grew up on Tucson’s northwest side; both of his parents, Pete Sr. and Freddie, represented the area before him.

Hershberger, who has spent most of his career working in the area of counseling services for wayward youth, wants to focus on child-welfare issues in the Senate. He says Arizona is “not a child- and family-friendly state. … Children should be safe, healthy and have access to quality education.”

Melvin and Hershberger represent the yin and yang of the Arizona Republican Party. Melvin says Hershberger is too soft on gun rights; Hershberger says he favors restricting weapons in bars and schools. Melvin says Hershberger is too soft on the border; Hershberger says he doesn’t support every piece of border legislation sponsored by members of his caucus, but he did support the employer-sanctions bill passed last year.

Melvin says Hershberger is too soft on abortion restrictions; Hershberger says he believes that government has no business getting involved in the decisions of a

ScrambleWatch Q&A: Democrat Tom Prezelski on the State Budget

Democrat incumbent Tom Prezelski is one of seven candidates running for two seats in the Legislative District 29 House of Representatives Democratic primary that voters will decide on Sept. 2. We asked him some questions about the state budget.

Is state spending too high, to low or just right in these areas?

Education (K-12)

Too low.

English Language Learners Program

Too low.

Emergency preparedness

That’s just right. Of course, most of that money comes from the federal government anyway.

Environment

Too low.

Health Care

ScrambleWatch Q&A: Democrat Daniel Patterson on the State Budget

Democrat Daniel Patterson is running for House of Representatives  in Legislative District 29. We asked him some questions about the state budget.

Is state spending too high, too low or just right in these areas?

Education (K-12)

That’s definitely way too low. We need to invest in public education. I understand that. I’ve got a daughter in TUSD and I volunteer at her school. We’ve got a lot of dedicated teachers that are doing a heroic job on a very small budget, but we cannot continue to impoverish our public school system. I’m proud to have the endorsement of the Arizona Education Association and I think they have endorsed our campaign because I see some of the problems facing the public schools in Arizona and I’m the best candidate to try to solve them.

English Language Learning Program

You know I think that’s essential. I certainly have very big concerns with the way that Tom Horne, the state superintendent of education has politicized and

Televised Debate: Democrats Phil Lopes, Olivia Cajero Bedford and John Kromko

If you missed last night’s Legislative District 27 debate with Democrats Phil Lopes, Olivia Cajero Bedford and John Kromko on KUAT-TV, you can watch it here.

ScrambleWatch Q&A: Republican Vic Williams on Taxes

Republican candidate Vic Williams is one of three candidates in the Legislative District 26 House of Representatives GOP primary. We asked him some questions about taxes.

Do you support the repeal of the state property tax?

I believe our property taxes are too high and now is not the time to overtax people. I believe we need to look elsewhere and I believe we need tax relief on individual properties.

Since it will cost the state $250 million, what should the state cut to make up for the lost revenue?

In my opinion we need to do a few things…we need to cut spending, maybe not necessarily all programs but we need to balance the budget by cutting spending across the board. If you take a look at our state, we’ve had a 70 percent increase in our budget in the last seven to 10 years and anytime you have that kind of increase in expenditures, I am sure that there are overlapping overheads, redundancies and wasteful spending. I’m sure that we could consolidate them. Secondly, as much as I want to see our school infrastructure grow, we may want to consider suspending new school infrastructure, for a time until we can pick up the slack.

Do you support borrowing for school construction?

Yes, absolutely. Before we go out and start bonding, however, we need to be cautious where we spend money when we’re in an economic downturn. I do support bonding for infrastructure and such but let’s focus right now on getting our fiscal health in order.

Would you vote for the TIME initiative, which increases the sales tax by a penny per dollar to fund highway, rail and local transportation projects?

I plan to be speaking with the mayor of Oro Valley-he’s an expert on that. From what I hear about it, here are some of the issues I have with it…We tend to try and tax ourselves to prosperity in this state, over and over again. I see us doing it at the global, municipality, county-wide and state levels. I would prefer to see us look towards quality economic development and extending our free market and developing our base revenue to fund these types of projects, verses looking at taxing our existing base, which is what they’re doing. Also, before signing on to something like that, I’m very cautious about rail systems and the environmental impact on these services. I think these systems might be environmentally harmful beyond their good of producing transportation.

ScrambleWatch Q&A: Republican Marilyn Zerull on Taxes

Marilyn Zerull is one of three Republican rivals seeking the two seats in the House of Representatives in Legislative District 26. We asked her some questions on taxes.

Do you support the repeal of the state property tax?

I’m always in support of the repeal of any property tax.

SInce it will cost the state $250 million, what should the state cut to make up for the lost revenue?

Wasteful programs such as Planned Parenthood and some cuts in education, but only to support other parts of education. For instance, I don’t think the state should be paying for all-day daycare. I think that should be the responsibility of the parents. I also don’t believe we should be funding benefits for illegal aliens such as free health care and free education and all the freebies that we offer. I’m not familiar with all parts of the budget but I do know that the government can be run like a household. When the family gets hit with a crisis, the family has to cut back.

Do you support borrowing for school construction?

No, I think borrowing just puts the financial burden on future generations.

Would you vote for the TIME initiative, which increases the sales tax by a penny per dollar to fund highway, rail and local transportation projects?

No. I don’t believe in raising taxes at all. Things like this should be paid for by the people that use them.

ScrambleWatch Q&A: Republican Trent Humphries on Taxes

Republican candidate Trent Humphries is one of three candidates in the Legislative District 26 House of Representatives GOP primary. We asked him some questions about taxes.

Do you support the repeal of the state property tax?

Yes. If we’re going to get out of the funk we’re in, businesses are going to have to step in. Anything we can do to free them up where they can make up that difference is great. Like I said at the (recent Clean Elections) debate, the last thing we want to do is whatever kills the golden goose.

Since it will cost the state $250 million, what should the state cut to make up for that difference?

Well one thing I’d like to see is having the same sunset provision for state spending as we do for tax cuts. We could also put a freeze on all budgets-maybe not on all things, for instance education, but the majority we could freeze. Bottom line, we need to put emphasis on making wise spending choices.

Do you support borrowing for school construction?

It seems really short-sighted to me. I mean there may be times where it is needed, however there needs to be an aggressive payback schedule. People have told me we can’t build without borrowing so we just continue to borrow and borrow and borrow and we build up this wall of debt. That’s obviously not a wise strategy. There may be a time when borrowing might be necessary to contain a project for instance, but it should be rare and it should be planned for as far the exact break down.

Would you vote for the TIME initiative, which increases the sales tax by a penny per dollar to fund highway, rail and local transportation projects?

I hate that initiative! Even setting aside the dodgy way it was written and the way the signatures were paid for, in Southern Arizona we should really look at it hard because we know the profits from that sales tax probably won’t be spent in our area. It just smells like Rio Nuevo to me, in which you have a board free from legislative oversight that makes all the spending decisions but doesn’t ever spell out exactly what that money is used for. It puts you in a position to get a lot of money that doesn’t effect the constituents with no accountability for that money.