The other Grand Canyon: Arizona's yawning budget chasm has tempers flaring over a proposed tax hike. It's also spreading the fiscal pain all over the state.

• Author: Pitzl, Mary Jo

[ILLUSTRATION OMITTED]

When the housing bubble popped nationally, it exploded in Arizona. The damage is widespread: Home foreclosures rank Arizona third-highest in the nation, a prominent homebuilder declared bankruptcy and scores of businesses went under.

At the state Capitol, the toll is measured in negative numbers a deficit as deep as $3 billion on a budget that barely cracks $10 billion.

That toll is now taking on another, more human, face with hundreds of state workers laid off, fewer services for everyone from disabled newborns to shut-in seniors, and shuttered state parks.

Arizona lawmakers, who just three years ago were scrapping over how to spend a $1 billion surplus, are now grappling with deficits. In late January, they closed a $1.6 billion deficit for FY 2009. And as they turned their attention to the FY 2010 budget and a deficit that could hit $3 billion, they learned they may have to cut even more in the current year spending plan.

The situation approaches an emergency-room scenario, where doctors are struggling to stop the bleeding so they can perform a life-saving procedure, only to have a new wave of casualties flood in.

Now, state policymakers are at odds over how to wrestle the budget back into balance. Governor Jan Brewer, just six weeks into her tenure, inflamed the debate with her call for a temporary tax increase. Although the GOP governor is building her budget plan on cuts as well as federal stimulus money, the mere mention of a tax hike has overshadowed all else.

The Republicans, who control the Legislature, say they're not convinced a tax increase is needed. They're willing to sell state assets, such as various buildings, or look at getting an advance, in effect, on future state lottery money, before looking at a tax increase.

"'The 'b' word is better than the 't' word," says House Appropriations Chairman John Kavanagh, setting out a game plan that would agree to borrowing ahead of taxation.

Meanwhile, lawmakers are intent on eliminating a state property tax suspended since 2006--that brings in about $250 million a year, even as their governor is talking about tax increases. Brewer has been silent on the tax elimination, which adds up to one quarter of the amount of money that she suggests would have to be cut from state programs.

HOW IT GOT THIS BAD

It wasn't all that long ago that Arizona's fiscal situation was as sunny as the state's chamber-of-commerce weather. Money was pouring into state coffers, fueled by the boom in housing and the consumer spending that goes along with it.

The state's average revenue growth of 7 percent a year nearly tripled in 2006, and state officials were happy to put the largesse to work. They cut state income taxes, worked a deal with then-Governor Janet...