I'm Running for the AZ Senate in 2010

First of all, thank you for your trust and your votes in 2008.  I do my best to campaign on the fundamental principles I believe in, which I also believe reflect our district's majority views.

What many pundits said would be a close race (some even predicted I would lose!) turned out to be a message-sending victory of nearly 8,000 votes!  This despite nearly $120,000 worth of negative "smear" mailings and phone calls and my being outspent by a ratio of over 10-to-1.  Hopefully it is now clear that District 9 is a common-sense conservative district and we can spend more time discussing real issues in future campaigns.

Again, thanks to the many people who helped in so many ways!

The good thing about having a principled representative is that while you may or may not agree with all of my principles, at least you know where I stand and are unlikely to be surprised by very many of my votes.  When a particular issue is closely linked to a bedrock principle, and my position is based on that principle, no amount of calls or emails is likely to change my stance.  If people come to disagree with my principles, they are free to vote against me if they see fit.  Principles don't really mean anything if they aren't consistent.

However, many issues are matters of policy that aren't necessarily driven by core principles.  On those issues, I look forward to as much voter input as possible.  Many times, I have changed or made up my mind based in part on feedback from constituents.  Please continue to send comments and ideas about legislative issues to rmurphy@azleg.gov.  Due to the large volume of email I receive I can't personally respond to every message, but I do read every message.

My seniority has allowed me to become the Chairman of the Ways and Means committee, which oversees tax policy in the House.  I am convinced that Arizona's tax structure is fundamentally flawed and has become obsolete.  Those flaws (along with profligate spending) are among the primary reasons we have such an enormous deficit problem.  Our current tax structure punishes outside investment in Arizona and inhibits the job creation we need to diversify our economy away from primarily relying on growth, as we have for decades.  Only a fundamental overhaul will truly fix this problem, and there's no time like the present!

2010/2011 Budget Update

The 2009 legislative session/special sessions seemed like they would never end.  Unfortunately, the 2009 session was dominated by the historic deficits we had to address in both the FY2009 (the then-current year) and FY2010 budgets.

As background, The FY2008 budget (passed in 2007) projected revenue that was nearly $1.5 billion too high!  I voted NO on that budget plan because I predicted then that revenues would be at least $1 billion short, largely due to the real estate downturn and declining sales taxes, especially on vehicles.  Not only was I right, it was much worse than I expected.

Even though we knew for sure that revenues would be at least $600 million short as early as August, 2007 (less than two months after the budget passed), Governor Napolitano refused to call a special session to address the issue or order her department heads to reduce spending (which she could have done).

Once the 2008 session started, the governor made clear she was opposed to meaningful spending cuts, as were just enough free-spending liberal Republicans in both the House and Senate.  New debt was their preferred solution to keep spending money the state (that means YOU) didn't have.  By the time an agreement on a revised FY2008 budget was reached with the governor, it was mid-April and we were warned by State Treasurer Dean Martin that the state would run out of legal spending authority very soon.  Since the chance to make meaningful cuts had passed, we had no choice left but to drain most of the Rainy Day Fund and use accounting gimmicks (including a relatively small amount of debt) to balance the 2008 budget.

The final negotiations then began on the FY2009 budget, which was about $2 billion out-of-balance!  Despite using up all of the easier solutions in FY2008, the governor and the same free-spending liberal Republicans were steadfastly against meaningful spending cuts.  Once again, Governor Napolitano wanted to obligate you and your children to massive amounts of new debt to not only balance the budget, but actually increase spending by over $1 billion more!  Once again, I voted NO! 

It was totally irresponsible to knowingly set up a constitutional crisis in 2009 or 2010, but Governor Napolitano and her cronies did it anyway.  The fact is, the state constitution requires a balanced budget and there will probably never be a 2/3 majority to raise taxes, but voter-protected automatic spending increases cannot be modified by the legislature, even during a recession.  If you thought FY2009 was difficult, just wait for FY2010!

We need to keep (and elect more) common-sense legislators who will stand up to Governor Napolitano and oppose her fiscally irresponsible spending policies.  That is the real reason for this mess.  We must look for solutions that don't burden our children with debt and create good jobs to help soften the effect of future economic downturns.

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