Put Jan Brewer on suicide watch—she’s a cutter…or, Hip new game show: Who wants to get out of the UA by 2011!?

Current Status of Budget Deficit:

FY 2010 = $1.4 billion

FY 2011 = $3.2 billion

Yikes, however will the State solve this?

Highlights of Gov. Jan Brewer’s budget proposal:

The good: The universities’ funding, pay levels should not drop below FY 2006 levels

From Brewer’s official budget:

“Consistent with the core principles stated above, we must make dramatic changes in the way

State government fulfills its mission. Specifically, the Executive Budget Recommendation:

• maintains State support for K-12 education FY 2006 levels, despite reductions in federal

support;

• maintains university funding at FY 2006 levels (75% of FY 2008 levels);

• reduces the AHCCCS rolls by 25%, or 310,000 individuals, and eliminates the KidsCare

program, which provides health coverage for nearly 47,000 children;

• reduces services for 17,000 seriously mentally ill adults – approximately half of that population;

• eliminates cash assistance for 10,000 families;

• places a hard cap on day care assistance and eliminates services for more than 10,000

children of low-income working parents;

• closes the Department of Juvenile Corrections, transitioning the custody of minors to county

detention centers and laying off an additional 900 State employees;

• reduces State employee pay by 5%; and,

• redirects Lottery revenue streams.”

-Brewer also proposed a mandatory 5 percent pay cut for state employees, although this would not include universities. The budget process is far from over, but it seems such an exemption is likely to stick, considering it is a presumed condition of the federal stimulus money.

The bad: Lots of state sh**’s gonna get cut

Decreasing State Spending

-From $10 billion to: $7.8 billion in FY2010; $8.6 billion in FY 2011

Most notable cuts: Cut entire Department of Juvenile Corrections; Scale back Medicaid; Close two-thirds of Arizona’s State Parks

Savings from these three cuts combined: About $470 million

The ugly: You may be paying more taxes

Instituting Higher Sales Taxes

-The now infamous plan of the governor urging the State Legislature to approve a 1-cent-on-the-dollar sales tax. This would ideally start by March—otherwise, the State will be forced to cut another $260 million from the budget, according to the Arizona Republic.

Projected Savings: $263 million in FY2010; $1.1 billion in FY2011

The WatchCat’s Two Cents:

Readers should keep in mind that Brewer’s proposal is just that—a proposal. A deep rift has grown between the Governor’s Office and the Legislature ever since budget questions started falling into place, so the governor’s proposed budget will likely transform into an unrecognizable monster by the time it gets anywhere near approval. No matter what disagreements arise, the lack of a balanced budget by around March will result in a cataclysmic impact against the State. You think things are bad now? Just wait until then.

Stimulus money protecting universities, but not forever

The news for the universities’ relationship to the proposed budget is this: Brewer has been steadfast since June in protecting higher education from dipping below FY 2006 funding levels, a condition of the federal stimulus money for education coming in.

That stimulus money won’t protect Arizona higher education forever, though. When that well dries up in 2011, not only will the universities lose valuable monetary assets; it’s quite likely that with the conditions lifted, the Legislature will bite down on education, and bite down hard, as they’ve wanted to since this budget crisis began.

Brewer’s proposal may sound like somewhat of a godsend for those within the university communities, but look a little closer and it becomes clear that such a proposal is only part of the story, that it’s only a matter of time before the universities have to write the check for the protection they’ve been given.

The more you look at the State budget crisis, the more it looks like a Doomsday Clock. And no one’s immune—not even you, University of Arizona community.