Contrary to Arizona's reputation as a conservative state, the growth of government increased as much as 17% in 2005. Arizona needs TABOR - a Taxpayer Bill of Rights - to reign in spending.

At an ancient Roman orgy, guests would binge madly on food and booze. When things became too toxic, they would head out to the vomitorium to purge, then continue bingeing.

Over the last decade [see graph], Arizona state government has binged heavily during economic boomtimes, growing by as much as 17 percent in 2005 and 13 percent in 1999. But it has also purged occasionally, growing by two percent in 2000 and shrinking by five percent in 2003. Overall, the binges have outpaced the purges, with Arizona’s state budget growing by an average of seven percent per year over the decade.

To put that seven percent in perspective, compare it to the 3.6 percent average nationwide growth in employee compensation (wages, salaries and benefits) over the same period. In other words, Arizona government has been growing almost twice as fast as the incomes of working people.

Defenders of government spending prefer to compare the growth in government spending to personal income growth, which includes not just employee compensation but other income, such as investment returns. Even so, the government’s seven percent average annual growth rate nearly kept pace with Arizona’s 7.2 percent average growth in personal income.

During the super-binge years, Arizona government consumed far more than even personal income growth would allow. The 17 percent budget growth in 2005 was more than double the 8.3 percent personal income growth for 2004, and the 13 percent budget growth in 1999 was much higher than the robust 9.5 percent personal income growth in 1998.

Arizona’s orgiastic budgets have been pushed by lobbyists, passed by legislative majorities and signed by governors. The politicians have often resorted to Enron-style accounting gimmicks in order to spend more than revenues would allow. Voters have encouraged politicians by voting for candidates who promised to give them more free stuff.

The orgy continues, aided by surging tax revenues. According to the Joint Legislative Budget Committee, last year’s budget was $8.7 billion. This year, with surplus revenues of $1.2 billion, the legislature could easily increase the budget to $9.4 billion, outpacing the 7.7 percent increase in personal income projected by JLBC. And that’s before negotiations begin with Gov. Janet Napolitano. Napolitano is asking for a $10.2 billion budget, or a 17-percent increase in government spending. (Using her own baseline for last year’s budget, the governor proposed a Caligulan 22-percent increase in spending!) Even if legislative leadership bargains hard and meets the governor halfway, we could end up this year with a $9.8 billion budget and outrageous government growth of 13 percent.

If we do not stop the orgy, Arizona government will continue to binge (and occasionally purge) on its way to ever-bigger budgets. To recover from its past excesses, the state must adopt a strict but gradual weight-loss diet. The name of that diet is the Taxpayers Bill of Rights (TABOR), also known as the Budget Stabilization Act. TABOR would allow state government to grow steadily at the rate of population growth plus inflation. Under TABOR, this year’s budget would be $9.2 billion.

As the graph shows, Arizona under TABOR would have seen steady increases in government spending averaging 4.8 percent per year over the last decade, generous in comparison to the growth in employee compensation. There would have been no deficit (no painful purging) during the 2002-2003 recession, and the government would have refunded over $4 billion to taxpayers.

Although government would grow in absolute terms under TABOR, it would get gradually smaller as a portion of the Arizona economy, helping Arizonans to become progressively less dependent on government services. As their incomes grew, Arizonans could support quality-of-life improvements through individual initiative, families, churches, and voluntary civic associations. TABOR would not just stop the budgetary orgy. It would strengthen our communities and make us freer.