By Howard Fischer
Capitol Media Services/Arizona Daily Star
Attorney General Tom Horne had the legal authority to contribute $50 million the state got from a nationwide mortgage settlement toward helping balance the state budget, Horne’s lawyer told the Arizona Court of Appeals Monday.
Attorney Tim Berg acknowledged that Horne signed a federal consent decree that put $97 million into a special fund designed to be used to deal with the effects of the mortgage crisis. And he told the state Court of Appeals that Horne had sole authority over those dollars so long as they fell within the “very, very broad realm” of permitted uses.
“What the attorney general has decided to do in the exercise of that power is transfer $50 million to the general fund,” Berg told the judges. “Whether you view that as repaying the state for its costs caused by the foreclosure crisis or ameliorating the effect of the foreclosure crisis, it is within the attorney general’s discretion to do that.”
Tim Hogan of the Arizona Center for Law in the Public Interest disagreed. He was hired by housing advocacy groups to represent those in danger of foreclosure – people who Hogan said need the money the Legislature took.
