State of Woe

Woe: Interjection used to express grief, regret, or distress (Merriam-Webster Dictionary).

“Woe to those who make unjust laws, to those who issue oppressive decrees, to deprive the poor of their rights and withhold justice from the oppressed of my people, making widows their prey and robbing the fatherless. What will you do on the day of reckoning, when disaster comes from afar? To whom will you run for help?” (Isaiah 10:1-3)

The prophet Isaiah preached these words to the rulers of his state nearly 2,800 years ago. They are a compelling warning today to the governmental leaders of Arizona as they respond to the state’s budget crisis. For their response has implications that are not only political and economic, but also spiritual and moral. How we educate our young and care for our most vulnerable cannot be valued simply in financial terms. Indeed, we as a people are valued by how we respond to these most essential responsibilities.

State funding for K-12 public education in Arizona was 49th lowest in the nation, ahead of only Utah -- before the latest massive funding cuts. Legislative leaders have proposed $800 million in further reductions to this already underfunded system. Layoffs of teachers, nurses, social workers, and other critical personnel will only weaken our schools, hurt our children and youth, and make Arizona less desirable for residents and businesses alike.

The same concern holds true for higher education in Arizona, which directly impacts the future of our young people, the vibrancy of our intellectual and cultural life, and the competitiveness of our economy. Our public universities have been funded at half the level of support of peer state universities, and are facing additional cutbacks. Research is a critical component to the mission of our universities, complementing teaching, bringing in outside funding, and supporting high-technology companies in our state.

The plight of people struggling with unemployment, homelessness, illness, abuse, and disability was difficult enough without their losing the most basic assistance, as is threatened with the current legislative budget cuts proposed for health and human services:

The state’s failure to adequately fund medical care for the working poor and unemployed will only shift costs onto doctors and hospitals, who will in turn shift these costs to the rest of us, making healthcare even more unaffordable and inaccessible. The consequences of failing to adequately fund mental health care are even more troubling. The State of Arizona continues to fall far short in funding comprehensive treatment for all people with serious mental illness as required by the Arnold vs. Sarn lawsuit settlement – from two decades ago.
Homeless shelters around the state are closing or scaling back at the same time that homelessness is increasing dramatically, with new populations of families and elderly who have just lost their housing. For example, the overflow shelter at 12th Avenue and Madison in Phoenix, just blocks from the state capitol, is an old warehouse full of 300 men sleeping head to toe each night. State budget cuts threatened to close it. Where would these men go otherwise? To the grounds of the capitol itself?

Domestic violence shelters will be operating at 50% of capacity due to loss of staffing. That’s right, the beds are available, but women and children will be on the streets -- or continue to be beaten and mistreated at the hands of their abusers. Eleven domestic shelters statewide may close – shelters which served 9,000 women and children last year.

Because of staff layoffs, Child Protective Services is no longer able to follow up on all reports of abuse or neglect. How many children will die because warnings were missed? This is an unconscionable, but inevitable, result of budget cuts. Further, elimination of in-home services to at-risk families at $4,000 per year per family will lead to many more children being placed in institutionalized foster care at $18,000 annually per child.

Similarly, Adult Protective Services cannot follow up on all reports of abuse or neglect of elderly and disabled adults. And, for thousands of seniors, loss of independent living support and in-home care at $900 per month will result in many entering nursing facilities at five times the cost.

Scores of programs which focus on proactive, preventive intervention will simply cease -- and so we will pay for cures by the pound rather than prevention by the ounce. So, among other dysfunctions in Arizona, expect the prison population to continue to rise at a cost to you and me of $27,000 per prisoner per year. And, when we release these prisoners with $50 in their pocket and no job or place to live – expect to see them right back into the system.

How to avoid these woes? Protecting Arizona’s Families Coalition (www.pafcoalition.org) and the Arizona Budget Coalition (www.arizonabudgetcoalition.org) have outlined ways in which the budget crisis can be solved in the near term without the extreme cutbacks illustrated above. So, too, have university economists of the Fiscal Alternative Choices Team (FACT) in their report to Arizona legislative leaders (see http://www.arizonaguardian.com/az/images/stories/documents/fact.pdf).

Longer term, we need to thoroughly reform our tax system, which is full of loopholes for special interests and which over relies on regressive sales taxes. We can make smarter changes to state programs, adopt better practices, and collaboratively engage in partnerships among government, business, education, faith, philanthropic, nonprofit, and other community organizations to better serve those in need in Arizona. Otherwise, we will live in a state of woe.

Woe to political leaders who are indifferent to the vulnerable among us.

Woe to the rich and powerful who abuse and neglect the poor and weak.

Woe to all of us if we fail to help one another.