Wednesday, August 1, 2007

Now that illegal immigrants can't get government services in AZ, just how much are we taxpayers saving?

The recent news is that the State of Arizona will now run a deficit in the fiscal year that started July 1. The state may eventually need to cut programs and services to save money, but don't expect the state to come into any cash windfalls now that voters (and the legislature) have tightened rules making those in the country illegally ineligible for government benefits, such as English classes or in state tuition. In fact, since state agencies have been forced to check identification and begin verifying eligibility based on citizenship/legal residency, very few people have been denied benefits. And Coconino Community College spent $190,000 to comply with the new set of laws and verify all their students' eligibility, yet only four students were found to be ineligible for scholarships or in state tuition. Now I'm no math wizard, but I have attended community colleges in Arizona (and one of our state's universities). It seems to me that if the laws designed to keep illegal immigrants from receiving government benefits had never gone into effect, and Coconino Community College instead just gave scholarships to those four students (who may have been undocumented/illegal), then the taxpayers would still be several thousand dollars ahead. Right? I mean, did they really save $190,000 by not giving scholarships or in state tuition to those four students? It sounds like a bad investment of our tax dollars to me. And it sounds like Rep. Russell Pearce is not the fiscal conservative he claims to be.

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