HOUSE DEMS TRY HAND AT A BUDGET

posted by Michael Chihak

The Arizona Republic reports today that Arizona House Democrats are circulating their owns state budget proposal.

It's a first in the 50th Legislature, in which Democrats are so outnumbered that their voice has been little more than a squeak.

But House Minority Leader Chad Campbell says he and his colleagues are releasing a spending proposal because of what he calls a "hoarding" plan by Republicans with what is the state's first surplus in several years.

The Dems want to spend money restoring some of the big cuts that were made in the last four years to education, health care and child care.

The Democrats say their plan is more responsible than both the Republican legislative plan and GOP Gov. Jan Brewer's proposal because under the Democratic plan, there would be a smaller deficit come 2015.

That's the year after the state supposedly will fall off a "fiscal cliff," as the Republicans have been consistently describing it.

What are the percentage chance that Democrats will get anywhere with their plan? Let's just say it's a round number, a really round number.