By Jim Small | Arizona Mirror
Pew Charitable Trusts last week issued an analysis that ought to worry the incoming members of the 54th Legislature, which was elected earlier this month and will convene for the first time in January, about the fiscal health of Arizona.
In an analysis of all 50 states, Pew found that Arizona is among the states most ill-equipped to deal with an economic downturn.
The researchers evaluated each state and gave each a “volatility score” based on changes in revenue collections over 20 years. They also determined how much each state has in reserve funds, compared to how much it spends annually. The states were then categorized by how they scored in each category.
Unsurprisingly to anyone who has covered Arizona’s budget process, or the lack of response from policymakers to give the state tools to weather an economic downturn in the wake of the Great Recession, Arizona is firmly in the “above average volatility, below average reserves” category.
