http://stream.publicbroadcasting.net/production/mp3/knau/local-knau-882539.mp3
Phoenix, AZ – The issue, said Mills, is money. The state is spending too much.
He opposes the plan of incumbent Jan Brewer for a temporary hike
in state sales taxes to minimize the cuts that have to be made.
Mills acknowledged the current gap between revenues and expenses
exceeds $3.5 billion. But he said that's irrelevant.
(It's real simple. You've got to cut spending somewhere. It's
just a matter of how big the number is. If you had $65,000 of
income and $100,000 in bills, what would you do?)
Mills said the current financial problem is the result of the
spending when times were good.
(We had a pretty free-wheeling time from about '05 thorugh '08
when we were flush with cash. We had a lot of money coming in.
And we committed ourselves to a lot of spending with luxuries
today we can't afford.)
His list of luxuries includes the state's decision to pay for
full-day kindergarten programs when many schools were already
offering it, using local dollars or charging tuition to parents.
Mills, a National Rifle Association board member who owns Gunsite
in Paulden, faces off in the GOP primary against not just Brewer
but also Dean Martin and John Munger. And while he's a relative
unknown, he has put $2.1 million of his own cash into his
campaign to remedy that. For Arizona Public Radio this is Howard
Fischer.