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.