Former Governor Janet Napolitano, who now heads up the Department of Homeland Security, lost a case brought against her by the League of Arizona Cities and Towns. It seems that after running her state's budget into the ground and refusing to cut spending she pushed for legislation that cities and towns throughout Arizona should just shell out $30 million into the states general fund for her use. In effect - and in my opinion - basically what she did is impose an illegal tax increase on the cities and towns.

Well now the Arizona Supreme Court has ruled that her actions violated the Arizona Constitution. What repercussions will Janet Napolitano face? None of course! All the decision found was that the cities and town in Arizona do not have to pay the money. If Napolitano had her way though they would have suffered due to her lack of leadership. Who cares that she violated the state constitution?

Napolitano's only argument in court in favor of imposing this ridiculous burden on the local communities - whom she pretended to care so much about as governor - was that the League of Arizona Cities and Towns filed their lawsuit too late to challenge the decision.

Good to know that as Secretary of Homeland Security we have someone in Janet Napolitano who is looking out for the millions living in small communities just trying to survive financially while big government rips them off as much as they can.

You can download a PDF of the Arizona Supreme Court decision

Arizona Capitol Times

A decision last year by the state to require local governments to repay $30 million to the state's general fund has been ruled unconstitutional by the Arizona Supreme Court.

In a unanimous opinion written by Vice Chief Justice Rebecca White Berch, the court sided with the League of Arizona Cities and Towns, which filed a special action lawsuit in November against then-Governor Janet Napolitano and State Treasurer Dean Martin.

The court ruled Feb. 3 that the provision requiring the forced transfer was unconstitutional...

The court's opinion will allow the state's cities and towns to keep the $18.3 million demanded by the state. Arizona's 15 counties will keep $11.4 million, although the counties did not participate in the lawsuit.

... Napolitano sought to defend itself from the lawsuit.

The court rejected the assertion by Napolitano attorney Kim Demarchi that the local governments had waited too long to file the request for special action.

I can think of just a few places that Napolitano could have saved more than $30 million dollars... she could have started with cracking down on all the services that illegal aliens use in the state. Obviously punishing the local communities and their taxpayers was her choice instead. That shows you her priorities and how she will perform as the head of DHS.

PDF tipped by: Reader Laura