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Budget committee confirms GOP border resolution will cost the state money [1]

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Date: 2024-06-03  

A new fiscal analysis confirms that a GOP plan to give Arizona police officers the power to arrest migrants will cost the state money and one law enforcement agency estimates that price tag at more than $40 million.

Republicans in the Arizona legislature are unanimously backing an effort to send a ballot referral to voters in November that would allow the state to enforce federal immigration law. House Concurrent Resolution 2060 would make it a state crime, punishable with jail time, for migrants to cross Arizona’s southern border anywhere but at an official port of entry. Local police officers and judges would be charged with arresting and deporting migrants caught under the proposal’s provisions. The state House of Representatives is set to consider the legislation on Tuesday, and if it’s approved, as it’s expected to be, Arizona voters will get a chance to weigh in on it in the fall.

And while business advocates, state officials, nonpartisan think tanks, law enforcement officials and GOP lawmakers themselves have all said the plan is likely to cost taxpayers, Republicans have offered no solutions for the expected strain on the state’s coffers. That failure to account for the proposal’s price tag likely renders it unconstitutional because Arizona law mandates that ballot referrals which lead to an increase in state spending must both provide a funding source and ensure that the revenue stream doesn’t pull from the state’s general fund. The state is already struggling to deal with a $1.3 billion budget deficit in its current and upcoming fiscal years.

The Joint Legislative Budget Committee issued a report on May 31 that underscored the problems with the plan. While legislative analysts declined to put an exact number on the proposal’s fiscal impact, they did write that it’ll inevitably incur costs for the state, local governments, the courts and law enforcement agencies, including state troopers. The Department of Public Safety projects it will be on the hook for at least $3.8 million every year to arrest, process and transport migrants who violate the “Secure the Border Act.” The most expensive part of the proposal for DPS officials to comply with would be its directive to transport migrants to an official port of entry to leave the country under an order of deportation. And the agency estimated that the total apprehension cost for both state and local law enforcement agencies could be as high as $41 million.

Legislative analysts added that the true cost is likely to be even higher, because the ballot referral also criminalizes other behaviors that police officers would be forced to make arrests for. The act would make it a felony for undocumented Arizonas to submit false information to apply for jobs or public benefits and would create a whole new class of felony, with much harsher penalties, for people convicted of knowingly selling fentanyl that later results in someone else’s death.

The report notes that law enforcement agencies aren’t the only public entities that will be forced to shoulder the costs of carrying out the act’s provisions. Public attorneys could see an increased workload as Arizona judges take up immigration cases, and the Arizona County Supervisors Association expects the costs of judicial proceedings to spike, as more interpreters will need to be hired, courtroom maintenance costs will increase and more detainees will need to be transported back and forth between jail and the court.

And while Republican lawmakers have touted shutting out undocumented Arizonans from public benefits as a cost-cutting measure, legislative analysts pointed out that identifying who is ineligible for public benefits will likely create new costs for Arizona counties. At the state level, agencies are already equipped to verify a person’s eligibility. The Department of Economic Security, which oversees retirement and unemployment benefits, and Arizona’s Health Care Cost Containment System, which handles low-income health insurance, both already vet the immigration status of applicants through the federal Systematic Alien Verification for Entitlements online database. At the county level, however, some organizations that provide public benefits, such as food or housing assistance, don’t have the infrastructure in place to do so and would need to hire new staff or train existing employees to comply with the act’s mandates.

One area in which the proposal might prompt a decrease in spending is public education. Under federal law, Arizona is required to enroll every school-aged child in K-12 schools, regardless of an aspiring student’s citizenship status. The bulk of the funding for public schools comes from the state general fund and how much schools receive is dependent on enrollment rates. If the proposal succeeds in driving away immigrant families, that could lead to a reduced use of state general fund monies.

But, the report notes, a decrease in undocumented Arizonans would also mean a reduction in state and local tax collections. Sales tax revenues would see the greatest impact, and income tax collections, to a lesser degree, would also decrease.

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[1] Url: https://azmirror.com/2024/06/03/budget-committee-confirms-gop-border-resolution-will-cost-the-state-money/

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