Morning. In today’s opinions newsletter : Budget cuts, the latest GOP billboard and cracking down on child sex trafficking.
It’s a law of science that every action has an equal and opposite reaction.
And a law of politics that every budget cut has an equal and opposite consequence.
Thus it is with the actions Arizona State University announced on Monday to pencil out a $24 million cut in state funding. The university said it had no choice but to institute a tuition surcharge on students and close its Lake Havasu campus, among other moves.
Lowering an already low level of state support for Arizona’s three public universities may have helped resolve a $1.4 billion deficit (this, after lawmakers were so flush with cash in 2023 that they were handing it out for pet projects that were neither strategic nor necessarily needed).
Which, in turn, ended a blisteringly long legislative session, and in time to avoid a costly government shutdown.
But it also created painful ripple effects that could hurt Arizona for years to come. E.J. Montini highlights them in a column.