NO GOULD RESIGNATION

posted by Christopher Conover

Gould is exploring a run for Congress but some have questioned whether or not that action violates Arizona’s resign to run law. The issue arose after Gould filed a statement of candidacy with the Federal Election Commission. Others, including state Senator Frank Antenori (R-Pima County) are also exploring congressional runs but instead filed their paperwork with the IRS.

The Arizona Secretary of State’s office oversees elections. Officials with Secretary of State’s office say Gould has in fact not violated the law by filing with the FEC. They say Arizona election law even lets a candidate collect petitions and not be forced to resign from their current office.

Arizona’s resign to run law does not apply to elected officials who are in the final year of their term.

MORE CITY BUDGET CUTS

posted by Christopher Conover

State lawmakers say fund sweeps and a decrease in state shared revenue is a thing of the past. But Kelly Gottschalk, the City of Tucson’s Chief Financial Officer says the budget situation in Tucson is still far from rosy.

Gottschalk says City revenues are stable and she also believes that revenue drops have bottomed out. However, she says the next fiscal year will still see budget cuts. The reason for that is increasing costs on things like pensions and medical insurance are outpacing the increases in revenue.

City of Tucson officials are encouraging people to shop locally this holiday season as a way of increasing sales tax revenue in local coffers.

ARIZONA BUDGET OUTLOOK IMPROVING

posted by Andrea Kelly

Arizona's budget may not be rapidly improving yet, but state budget experts say it shouldn't be getting worse next year.

There's even better news for local governments. State Rep. John Kavanagh said next year there will likely not be further cuts to the state funding that is reserved for local government spending. An example of this is road funding. Much of the city and county road repair money comes from state transportation taxes, so the state doles them out to local governments, but has withheld some in recent years

“We’re trying to undo all the not particularly popular, desperate things we did to prevent a massive tax increase and even greater reductions in services over the last three years," he said.

Kavanagh is on the house appropriations committee, which hashes through the budget details before the full house votes on the spending bills. In an interview, he said the state does not anticipate asking Pima and Maricopa county governments to contribute to the state general fund. In the past few years, the state has required them to give local funding to the state to fill in the state's budget deficit.