Napolitano: Ideas for safe, strong, prosperous Arizona
By David Hatfield, Inside Tucson Business
Published on Tuesday, January 17, 2006
Under a banner “Keeping Arizona Safe, Strong and Prosperous,” Gov. Janet Napolitano brought her State of the State roadshow to an audience of about 1,000 at the Tucson Convention Center, Jan. 11. But absent from the condensed Tucson version was much of the emphasis that Republicans liked so much when she delivered her first State of the State speech two days earlier to open this year’s legislative session.
Intentionally keeping her speech short so she could respond to questions, it wasn’t until the last question, asked by Mónica Contreras, chair of the Tucson Hispanic Chamber of Commerce, that specifics of her border issues proposals were addressed in the Tucson speech.
In particular, Contreras said her group’s membership is concerned over Napolitano’s proposal to institute state sanctions on businesses that hire undocumented people.
“That’s the federal law now,” Napolitano responded. “The feds have a toll-free number that any prospective employer can call to verify immigration status. All we’re asking is that employers take a reasonable step to ascertain immigration status.”
The governor went on to say that she sees the problem of illegal border crossers coming from Mexico as “primarily economic migration.”
“It’s a supply and demand issue. If we can take away that demand” she said the state can “focus on the literally billions of dollars of commerce and tourism and trade and legal immigation that comes through our ports of entry.”
After the luncheon speech, Contreras said she’s not certain how Hispanic Chamber will address Napolitano’s goal.
“We’re assessing that situation with our members now,” she said in an interview.
She said her organization is mostly concerned that any additional state mandates could hurt small businesses by adding costs, administrative overhead and liability issues. It could also hurt businesses hiring bilingual employees, Contreras said.
“We understand her frustration over current immigration policy but this may not be what’s needed to address that,” Contreras said.
In Napolitano’s speech, which was presented by the Tucson Metropolitan Chamber of Commerce as part of a day-long Multi-Chamber Expo, the governor cited specific goals under each of her target points to keep Arizona, safe, strong and prosperous.
For safety’s sake, she proposes putting $100 million toward border safety, instituting laws to track the 11,000 sex offenders in the state, build shelters to accommodate the two-thirds of domestic violence victims currently being turned away, and aggressively address the methamphetamine epidemic by passing laws to track sales of pseudoephedrine, which is used in the homemade production of the drug.
To maintain and build a stronger Arizona, Napolitano concentrated on education.
“We need a highly educated, English speaking workforce,” she said and education is the avenue. She proposes increasing beginning teachers salaries to a minimum of $30,000 and seeing to it “every teacher in the state gets a raise - a real raise.” She wants teacher professional development programs, such as Career Ladder, encouraged and she says she wants students to be prepared for life beyond high school.
As to future prosperity, the governor said she wants to expand medical residency programs, provide tax cuts to small businesses that provide health insurance to employees, cut the state’s vehicle license tax, and institute a three-day sales tax holiday in August for back-to-school purchases.
Contact David Hatfield by e-mail at dhatfield@azbiz.com or call (520) 295-4237.
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