Bipartisan governance isn’t the same as nonpartisan governance, which is the direction in which Arizona should be headed.
Opinion: If Arizona’s budget was nonpartisan instead of bipartisan, it wouldn’t have wasted so much cash on talking points and money that can’t be spent.
By Robert Robb |Arizona Republic
The recently enacted state budget has been praised for its bipartisan provenance.
And, with respect to additional funding for K-12 education, bipartisanship delivered.
The budget uses some of the gargantuan surplus to increase school funding in the range of what voters approved in Proposition 208, before it was eviscerated by the Legislature and nullified by the Arizona Supreme Court.
Credit is due to Republican Sen. Paul Boyer who withstood intense GOP pressure and refused to support a budget that didn’t honor what voters approved in Proposition 208.
And to legislative Democrats who didn’t maximize the leverage given them by the way Gov. Doug Ducey and GOP legislative leaders mismanaged the budget process. They agreed to a budget that also included most GOP priorities just before the lights went out in state government.
However, bipartisan governance isn’t the same as nonpartisan governance, which is the direction in which Arizona should be headed.
This is no way to decide how to spend $18 billion
