Let’s avoid the budget train wreck that is Arizona

It brings me no joy to once again remind Nevada legislators of the danger they put Nevadans in by copying the tax structures of other states while at the same time exhibiting no spending discipline.

California is an obvious lesson. But our neighbor to the south, Arizona, is in every bit the same trouble. Arizona spent exponentially more and paid for it with growth and a raft of new and higher taxes. Here is Arizona's structural state deficit in billions by year:

Year    Revenue    Expense

2002    $5.8        $6.3
2003    $5.8        $6.0
2004    $6.5        $6.6
2005    $7.7        $7.3
2006    $9.3        $8.3
2007    $9.6        $9.5
2008    $8.8        $10.4
2009    $7.0        $10.0

This is a run-a-way freight train on the expense side of the ledger. Residents in Arizona will either have to pay far, far more in taxes to sustain this spending, or legislators will have to cut expenses, not by percentage points, but by whole programs.

It's a mess. Arizona is currently projecting nearly a $4 billion deficit by 2013.

Yet, had legislators in Arizona held the line on expenses at, say the 2005 level, there would be no budget crisis for them this year.

I hope all Nevada legislators, governor candidates and any public official with a vote on the budget will spend a little time contemplating Arizona's dilemma.

And learn. That's a train wreck we can still avoid.