Goldwater Institute

When Arizona’s current budget problems began in the spring of 2007, we had just come off of two years of unprecedented revenue and expenditure growth of 17 and 12 percent respectively. Since then, lawmakers have used a variety of tactics to manage the budget as state revenues dropped to levels last seen in 2004. These tactics have so far allowed Arizona to continue spending at near-record levels. Of $12.5 billion in solutions to budget shortfalls, $2.2 billion are said to have been in spending reductions.

Children with disabilities are often poorly served by public schools. In 1999, Florida created a school voucher for children with disabilities called the McKay Scholarship Program. This program allows children with disabilities to take a portion of the funding the state would spend on their education and use it at any school they choose – whether that’s a traditional public school, a charter school, an online program, or a private school. Researchers have found that the program significantly improved learning among Florida’s children with disabilities. Ohio, Utah, Georgia, Oklahoma, and Louisiana have enacted voucher programs emulating McKay.

Under the state constitution, Arizona’s elected officials have the responsibility to protect individual rights and promote limited government. The Goldwater Institute presents 100 Ideas for 100 Days so policymakers at every level of government can enter 2011 with a bundle of suggestions to increase the state’s prosperity and expand freedom.

In the face of growing federal power and mounting deficits, some want states to call for a convention for proposing amendments to the U.S. Constitution that would rein in the federal government. Article V of the Constitution authorizes states to initiate amendments with a convention. Critics claim no one really knows how the process works and calling a convention would open the door to mischief by Congress, the courts, and convention delegates. But states frequently applied for an amendments convention between 1789 and 1913. A study of that history reveals much about how states can - and cannot - use the Article V process today.

Americans are increasingly questioning - and resisting - the endless growth of the federal government. Part of this resistance finds voice in efforts to enforce state sovereignty through litigation and legislation such as the Health Care Freedom Act and the Firearms Freedom Act. Measures such as these protect existing, fundamental rights from erosion at the federal level. But the growing discontent has also reignited interest in an even more direct route for the people and the states to regain control over the federal government - the Article V constitutional amendment process.