PHOENIX (AP) — Arizona's nearly enacted budget-balancing plan rolls back the clock for state government, going beyond making hundreds of spending cuts by permanently repealing state programs big and small.
State funding for all-day kindergarten, gone. Adios to a health care program for children. And early childhood services being provided under a 2006 ballot measure go too, if voters agree.
Other permanent changes included in the budget-balancing plan would ax aid for grandparents caring for grandchildren and special funding streams for local transportation and parks projects.
It adds up to smaller state government for Arizona for years to come, likely long after the end of the Great Recession that punched big deficit holes in the state budget.
