Arizona’s lawmakers have led the nation in cracking down on illegal immigration for years, but this year they vowed task No. 1 was boosting the economy and creating jobs.
They tackled what they promised — then garnered nationwide praise and ridicule for some of the country’s boldest moves to scale back government.
A few items under consideration in the Arizona Legislature:
• Voiding birthright citizenship, which would overturn a Civil War-era precedent.
• Abolishing Medicaid in Arizona in favor of a less expensive alternative.
• Dissolving the Arizona Board of Regents system in favor of separate boards for each state university.
• Immigration measures more sweeping than SB 1070 that would require hospitals and schools to determine if those enrolling are illegal immigrants.
• Letting southern Arizona secede and become the 51st state.
• Creating a committee that would allow Arizona to nullify federal laws it does not agree with.
All are far-reaching measures that, in their totality, are almost unprecedented. Which begs the question: Is this heavily Republican Legislature going too far with its proposals? Or do drastic times (big budget deficits, a struggling economy and the lack of federal immigration) call for drastic measures?
Lawmakers behind the proposals say voters swept conservative Republicans into office to shrink spending dramatically — even if it requires challenging the U.S. Constitution. Senate President Russell Pearce, R-Mesa, declared his “Tea Party Senate” would trigger reforms across the United States.
Republican lawmakers say they’ve done what they promised on the economic issues and now have time for immigration, challenging the federal government and responding to what voters elected them to do.
But critics say ultra-conservatives have overreached with clearly unconstitutional bills that distract one of the more economically battered states from rebounding. The dwindling number of Democrats in power — along with some Republicans — see a Legislature that’s out of touch with average Arizonans.
Longtime pollster Bruce Merrill said the latest crop of lawmakers is a reaction to the tea party, economic anxiety and people who believe the Obama administration has overreached. The popularity of last year’s anti-illegal immigration bill also upended politics in the state, he said. Merrill has conducted more than 500 surveys in two decades and said he’s found Arizonans as a whole are conservative but more centrist than today’s lawmakers.
“I give probably 20 interviews a week to media outside of Arizona and even outside of the country and almost always all of them start out with, ‘What the hell is going on in that nutty state?’ It’s actually hurting the image of the state,” Merrill said. “Why would a business go to Arizona, where you have this incredible political instability? Businesses need stability.”
Sweeping measures
Some top leaders vowed to ease away from hot-button immigration issues this year after criticism from the business community that economic recovery had been neglected. Those lawmakers wanted to change course after court challenges over a 2007 employer sanctions law and last year’s SB 1070, which made it a crime for illegal immigrants to be in Arizona.
But the state Senate took up more illegal immigration legislation with SB 1161, which would require hospitals to check immigration status. Also, illegal immigrants couldn’t buy or drive a vehicle or enroll in schools. Pearce said the bill fixes SB 1070 glitches.
During a recent Senate panel meeting that stretched until 2 a.m., Pearce said he’s obligated to block illegal residents from using taxpayer dollars.
“I’m after what the citizens have demanded and I’m after what the citizens overwhelmingly passed at the ballot box,” he said.
Other Republicans said Arizona should eliminate its AHCCCS health care system because it’s too costly and “immoral” to burden future generations with the bill. People in the Great Depression found a way to keep going without subsidized health care, they argued.
Democratic Majority Leader David Schapira, D-Tempe, shot back that people died in the streets during the Depression. “I’m tired of passing things out of here just to make headlines and spawn court cases,” Schapira said.
Lawmakers say some of the most far-reaching bills are symbolic efforts to ease regulations rather than literal assaults. The bill to eliminate AHCCCS would hit the economy hard and is a tough sell with many members, said Rep. J.D. Mesnard, R-Chandler. He noted that the nullification of federal mandates would require Congress to set up compacts that carved exceptions to federal rules, as opposed to letting Arizona act entirely on its own. The bill is a signal Arizonans don’t want the federal government to have so much control, he said.
“Sometimes we advance measures that are in effect a statement that we’re trying to send a message and I suspect that a lot of the push on the AHCCCS has to do with frustration on federal mandates, federal strings,” Mesnard said.
But Sen. Krysten Sinema, D-Phoenix, said the Republican moves are part of what she considers a nationwide movement to tell the federal government: You’re not the boss of me.
The nullification bill is offensive by redefining the U.S. Constitution, she said.
“I almost feel like we’re not living in the real world. It’s like this is a bad TV show but it’s all so real,” Sinema said. “I do wish the public knew more. I know it’s hard to keep up because there are so many bad bills, but I wish people had a peak into what we do. I think they’d be just as appalled as I am.”
Jobs first
The Legislature made good on pro-business measures early on by passing a sweeping jobs bill that cut corporate taxes, reduced property taxes and encouraged export businesses. Gov. Jan Brewer has already signed it into law.
The reform amounted to winning the Super Bowl for Arizona’s business community, said Glenn Hamer, the president of the Arizona Chamber of Commerce.
He considers it among the most pro-jobs measures in Arizona history even if other issues have gotten more attention.
“As far as we can tell, that’s the most aggressive tax reform and jobs package that’s been signed into law in any state in the United States, up to this point,” Hamer said.
Hamer endorses the fight against many federal regulations. He believes the birthright bill and other issues are certain to get shot down in court. Yet he doesn’t consider those battles as taking significant time away from other issues the business community still wants to address at the Capitol. But he is concerned at additional immigration bills because of estimates that prior actions have chased off convention business at a cost $15 million to $150 million.
“When these types of measures come up, it does affect our tourism industry in many ways,” Hamer said. “We do need to do a cost analysis when these bills come up.”
Overall, he’s concluded the Legislature has focused on important economic issues.
But Chandler mayor Jay Tibshraeny — a former Republican legislator — said the Legislature is not as in touch with Arizonans as local elected officials. He’s troubled at their efforts to improve the economy.
“I think they want to,” he said. “I don’t think they know how to.”
The Legislature has about 15 bills that Tibshraeny said would hurt cities by slashing their revenues and cutting impact fees that allow growth to pay for growth. He said the state doesn’t drive economic development as much as lawmakers might believe. He noted that Chandler recently inked deals on the two largest new employers in Arizona — an Intel plant that will employ 1,000 and a PayPal office that will hire 2,000.
“Those companies didn’t go to the state level to get the deals done. They go to the cities,” Tibshraeny said. “I know there’s folks down there that want to do things with economic development, but you have to be careful. You can’t go two steps forward and five steps back, which is what a lot of those bills do.”
Partisan politics
Merrill said the Legislature’s makeup is a result of the state’s 30 legislative districts being so partisan. Of 30 districts, only three or four are competitive. The rest fall into the hands of the tiny number of voters in primary elections. An increasing number of voters have become independent, leaving more hard-core Republicans and Democrats to define each party, he said.
A redistricting effort will take place by the next election that will shift boundaries and could result in more competitive districts.
Merrill said Republicans felt they had a mandate by winning so many seats even if the overall political mood wasn’t as much in their favor.
He predicts that just as voters think Democrats went too far nationwide in the past two years, that they’ll determine Republicans have gone too far as well. That could help more moderate candidates like Grant Woods, the former Arizona attorney general who has been mentioned as a candidate to replace retiring Sen. Jon Kyl. Woods was a mainstream Republican in his term in the 1990s who is now too moderate for many in the GOP. But Merrill said that could propel him in the next election.
“Because of what’s going on in the Arizona Legislature and the tea party, I think there’s a lot of people who are open to a neo-populist candidate, a guy who can say, ‘Screw both parties.’ I think you would be amazed how many people would be extremely attracted to that kind of candidacy.”
• Contact writer: (480) 898-6548 or ggroff@evtrib.com
Masterrogue666 posted at 10:50 pm on Mon, Mar 7, 2011.
Typo that I found: Remove "was" from:
"in either of your statements was about the article."
Not proofreading..... Guilty (But then, we both are).
Masterrogue666 posted at 10:41 pm on Mon, Mar 7, 2011.
listenertoo: Actually, Leon Ceniceros made several points. If you don't like putting forth some effort to read and understand what's written there, that's your right. However, this isn't a course on Writing 101. Perhaps Leon hasn't had the opportunities you or I have had. Perhaps Leon will never be able to do so. You are the one whom is most at fault for not sticking to the topic.
As for him getting "as nasty as you want", I didn't perceive Leon getting "nasty" whatsoever. However, I did consider most of what you wrote rude since it could be construde as a personal attack since there's nothing in either of your statements was about the article.
I noticed that you didn't critique anyone else's writing, even though many are guilty of the same things. I wonder, are YOU capable from learning from YOUR mistakes....[wink]
EmperorSmith posted at 4:16 pm on Sun, Mar 6, 2011.
Call Sherpiro get Cochran on the line.
Poorman posted at 3:46 pm on Sun, Mar 6, 2011.
At least Sen Sinema got it partly right,she isn't living in the real world.
EmperorSmith posted at 3:06 pm on Sun, Mar 6, 2011.
I should of kept a record. I identified at least 6 EVT employees probably doing there jobs.
EmperorSmith posted at 1:49 pm on Sun, Mar 6, 2011.
Is the truth being told, listner?
listenertoo posted at 9:54 am on Sun, Mar 6, 2011.
What was your point, Leon? I couldn't find it. It is not up to the reader to wade through your ramblings to try to figure out what you were trying to say.
You missed my point (which was fairly obvious) that poor writing obscures the message. I would like to be able to understand what exactly you are saying.
You can get as nasty as you want (what exactly did you mean by "Pretty is as pretty does."?) but I take no offense. I am suggesting that you get help in with your writing. I enjoy reading different points of views; it makes one think. A well thought out argument is a pleasure to read, but that is not what you have done.
You probably have interesting things to say. My challenge to you is take some time to learn how to express yourself and the whole discussion moves up. Is there really a problem with that? To your credit you admitted your mistakes. I believe that with proper coaching you could learn to make yourself clearer and that is the main goal of writing.
Good luck.
davidflucier posted at 9:38 am on Sun, Mar 6, 2011.
I'm still looking for a solution...or more to the point, several solutions to all the problems of the State. Hint: name calling, finger pointing, and blaming George Washington for starting it all don't count as solutions. Nor does saying things like, "it's very simple...." because believe it or not, it's not simple. Complex problems don't find solution on bumper stickers unless you really think that a cutsie little buzz phrase is going to correct a hugely complex, social, political, economic, financial problem.
Leon Ceniceros posted at 9:08 am on Sun, Mar 6, 2011.
P.S................"a good writer"......aren't "good" and "bad"......VALUE JUDGEMENTS...not....PERFORMANCE JUDGEMENTS ?????
Leon Ceniceros posted at 9:02 am on Sun, Mar 6, 2011.
Egregious grasp of basic punctuation = guilty
Misuse of capitalization = guilty
Uneducated = guilty
Ranting = guilty
Passinate (could you possible mean "passionate"...but what the heck) = guilty
What you are guilty of is...................(love those "elipses"....[beam]).....not giving any answers to the points that I so "un-educatedly" (is that a real word...oh, what the heck)...wrote about in my comment.
What's that old saying...."Pretty is as Pretty does".
listenertoo posted at 8:22 am on Sun, Mar 6, 2011.
Leon, just a suggestion; your egregious grasp of basic punctuation and misuse of capitalization makes what you have to say much less credible. When you use so many elipses (those little dots) it shows you are uneducated. Educated people, and that includes all political persuasions, see wrting like yours as ranting, and ranting is just not eloquent.
It is obvious you are passinate about what you believe. I would suggest taking a basic writing course so you could make your point. Ask yourself if you want to persuade the reader or get support from people who already believe as you do. A good writer uses intelligent arguments to persuade the reader.
Oh, and don't further loose credibility by calling me names. That is the ultimate tip off of someone who does not know how to make a point.
wdgnas posted at 7:24 am on Sun, Mar 6, 2011.
• Dissolving the Arizona Board of Regents system in favor of separate boards for each state university.
sounds to me like bigger government instead of smaller government. i have said this before. follow the money. somebody has a lazy brother in law sleeping on a couch or a campaign donor who wants one of these jobs...
Dale Whiting posted at 8:56 pm on Sat, Mar 5, 2011.
‘What the hell is going on in that nutty state?’ Beats me!
Cerulean posted at 8:26 pm on Sat, Mar 5, 2011.
“Sometimes we advance measures that are in effect a statement that we’re trying to send a message and I suspect that a lot of the push on the AHCCCS has to do with frustration on federal mandates, federal strings,” Mesnard said.
I imagine that this is what most of these absurd bills are about. Arizona's legislature is trying to tar and feather the fed, a kind of vigilante justice. Is that not exactly what 1070 is about? The problem is that you goofs in the legislature are costing the state more in legal fees than you solve with your temper tantrums, actually doing far more harm than good for Arizona's citizens.
"Creating a committee that would allow Arizona to nullify federal laws it does not agree with."
[crying] Stop spending so much of our money on stupid legislation that will only benefit lawyers.
nybill38 posted at 5:15 pm on Sat, Mar 5, 2011.
exactly how many is "some" I don't know of a single person that opposes what Arizona is doing on immigration.
As far is this stuff being unconstitutional I suggest you go back and read it, and if you don't understand it read it again and again until you do
davidflucier posted at 4:28 pm on Sat, Mar 5, 2011.
Somehow, I don't think that passing an unconstitutional piece of legislation "in order to get the conversation going" is really a good starting point for fixing the structural deficit. It's like walking up to someone to say hello by swiftly kneeing someone in the groin and saying, "oh, I just wanted to get your attention so I could say hello". Or passing a $540 million corporate tax cut and calling it a "Jobs Bill"...guns on campuses, eliminating Medicaid, putting the immigration enforcement responsibility on teachers, healthcare workers, nullifying Federal laws, cutting education and saying you support education, trashing the Board of Regents as a way to "improve" higher education in the state. I am totally befuddled! Up is down; down is up, day is night, license plates for political parties and calling it upholding the Constitution.
And now we are no closer to actually coming up with a solution to our STRUCTURAL DEFICIT than we are to taking wings and flying to the moon.
I think most of Arizona s still looking for that thing we call, "A solution".
crazyfromtheheat posted at 3:56 pm on Sat, Mar 5, 2011.
Ask Texas how well this plan plays out. They have done all the things these guys say they are going to do and they still have a tremendous deficit. Why? Because corporations use resources and don't pay back into the community. They hire the minimum amount of people at minimum wage. It doesn't work. It is failed policy. The Tea Party is a fairy tale and Arizonans continue to suffer. Maybe this will motivate more voting in the next election of sane, moderate, centrist. Whenever Arizonans have had enough. Have you had enough yet?
Leon Ceniceros posted at 3:54 pm on Sat, Mar 5, 2011.
I haven't seen any change in the polls of Arizona citizens. They voted overwhelmingly to change the OBAMA "CHANGE TO SOCIALISM" agenda of the DEMOCRAT PARTY. Not just in Arizona but ....ALL ACROSS AMERICA. If you watch the news, States in the "Rust Belt" that were massively "unionized" in the past have now become ...REPUBLICAN STRONGHOLDS and are voting....OUT....the pro-union, pro-liberal policies and politics of the past 40 years....just like that. Obama sounds more and more like Egypt's deposed dictator Mubarack...every day. He lets Vice-President Joe Biden negotiate with the Republicans because even though...."Bite-me Biden" as a 4-Star General referred to him last year...isn't the ..."brightest kid on the block"...at least ..Bite-me Biden's word is trusted which is more that you can say for Barack Hussein Barry Soeteo Obama (or whatever his real name...which Americans will never find out because he refuses to show his birth certificate ...for some reason...[wink].
As for Chandler's mayor....what comes to mind is B. H. B. S. Obama's old mentor, his old pastor of 20years from Chicago....the infamous Reverend Jeremiah Wright (watch him on youtube)...talking about..."chickens coming home to roost". Well Chandler was one of the original...."SANCTUARY CITIES" who's Police Department was ordered not to arrest ...ILLEGAL ALIENS...well.....this week we see where Chandler, Arizona has the distinction of being the 1st American City where a...MEXICAN DRUG CARTEL BE-HEADING....occured. Now why would the MEXICAN DRUG CARTELS ....feel that ...CHANDLER, ARIZONA...would be a city where they could act with such impunity.....why would they ever thing that they could get away with it in Chandler, Arizona.
The Arizona voters elected their choices for representation. The Arizona Legislators are doing what they were elected to do. That is the way politics work in America. You can be a....."SORE LOSER"....and bad-mouth your State....or you can be a patriotic citizen and abide by the rule of the majority...which is the way our Nation was created.