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State Supreme Court upholds corporations' diverting income taxes for private schools

(author unknown) — Wed, 28 Oct 2009 00:00:00 PDT

PHOENIX — The state's high court on Tuesday upheld a 3-year-old law that lets corporations divert some of their state income taxes to help students attend private and parochial schools.

AZ farms looked at as water resources vanish

(author unknown) — Mon, 26 Oct 2009 00:56:06 PDT

The water in the Colorado River could fill the needs of the homes and offices in Phoenix, Tucson, Las Vegas and much of Southern California, but much of it irrigates fields of wheat, alfalfa, cotton and vegetables.

Proposition mandates huge expansion of Tucson’s payroll

Goldwater Institute — Mon, 26 Oct 2009 10:04:34 PDT

by Nick Dranias Goldwater Institute Proposition 200 is marketed as an effort to focus Tucson on giving priority funding to core local government services–law enforcement, emergency medical services and fire protection–in order to generate better response times. But the truth is it would just mandate more government spending with no strings attached. The hiring mandates tied to the [...]

Az Dems Hurting for Cash - $18k COH

Dennis Welch — Mon, 26 Oct 2009 07:33:51 PDT

By Dennis Welch

The Arizona Guardian

New spending reports show the Arizona Democratic Party relied heavily on its Washington D.C. counterparts for cash last month as the party’s fundraising efforts have dropped far below the large amounts amassed in recent years.

The Democratic National Committee pumped in more than $23,000 in September to help fund a key state committee that had nearly run out of money the month before, according electronic filings with the Federal Elections Commission.

The State Democratic Central Executive Committee took in about $117,000 last month. About $54,000 was transferred into the committee from various non-federal funds. Another $15,000 came from individual donations and $10,000 from political action committees like the federal PACs for the ironworkers and transportation unions. The rest came from the DNC.

After paying out tens of thousands of dollars in salaries, consulting fees and other expenses, the party was left with about $18,000 cash on hand, a far cry from the roughly $464,000 that Democrats had at the same time four years ago – when state was last getting ready to elect a governor.

And in recent years, the party has been flush with cash as it headed into the final quarter of the year. Last year at this time, the Democrats had $303,400 cash on hand; in 2007, it was $105,000 and in 2006, $690,000 cash on hand.

Of course the major difference between then and now is Democrats no longer have a sitting governor to help raise money. Gov. Janet Napolitano left in January for a job in the Obama administration, turning over the executive branch to the Republicans.

Party officials also place a lot of the blame on the sluggish economy and say there’s little to worry about because they expect money to come in to the state’s federal committee in the near future.

“We’ve been able to maintain staffing levels,” said Luis Heredia, the executive director of the Arizona Democratic Party. “We don’t need anyone coming to our rescue right now.”

Heredia says the federal spending records that are filed every month with the FEC are “nothing but a snapshot” and don’t show the whole picture. He said the party’s statewide committee has done well but he refused to say how much has been raised or how much he expected to bring in by January – when the reports for state spending records are required to be turned in.

Federal records showed the party was very low on cash at the beginning of September. According to the FEC, the Democrats had a little bit more than $4,000 to start the month.

The lack of money, according to political observers, should be a great concern for a party that is fighting to win back the governor’s office and stay relevant at the Legislature.

Much has been made about the party’s disastrous 2008 election year in which the Democrats dropped seats in state legislative races. The party was very optimistic prior to the election that it would add seats – partly because it was so well-funded.

Currently, the Democrats are in the minority at the Capitol. They can’t afford to lose any more seats and expect to have any effect on legislation. Democrats were able to stick together this year, taking advantage of Republican in-fighting to spare some key programs like health care and education from the painful cuts suffered by other state agencies.

But it’s unlikely Democrats will have the same success in stopping deep cuts in the future. So the party must pick up seats in the Legislature or take back the governor’s office if its members want to have any influence.

Democratic rank-and-file have been skeptical the party’s leaders will be able to do that. And the latest financial figures are sure to fuel their doubts.

Heredia says money won’t be as big an issue in the coming election as it has been in the past. He says the party is working on incorporating new technologies and using different strategies that should keep the costs of running a campaign down.

When asked to for examples of how he expected to cut costs, Heredia declined to elaborate, saying only “we’re going to work a lot harder and a lot smarter.”

Still, a review of the records for last month shows that many of the big donors the party has counted on in the past are not showing up or giving very little.

Don Bivens, who earlier this year was voted out then voted back in as the chairman of the Arizona Democratic Party, chipped in $3,000 of his own money in September. U.S. Rep. Ed Pastor (D-Arizona) donated $1,000.

On the other hand, Jim Pederson, who has given generously throughout the years to the party, tossed in $1,000. Pederson had considered running for governor but dropped out earlier this year.

A review of the records also shows that other key Democratic groups have been stingy with the party this year. The Indian tribes have given very little – and nothing last month.

Heredia says the party still maintains a good relationship with the tribes and fully expects they will donate as the campaign heats up.

Civic Responsibility

Tedski — Mon, 26 Oct 2009 18:44:19 PDT

I left work too tired to deal with the 200 debate, but I’ve been reading the Facebook feed of a freind that is there. Jon Justice admitted that he’s not a registered voter. Wow, all that bluster and he can’t be bothered to exercise the most basic of civic responsibilities and vote. Toda boca y no [...]

Rotellini makes it official

(author unknown) — Tue, 27 Oct 2009 12:24:35 PDT

Felecia Rotellini, the former state prosecutor known for her investigations of white-collar crimes, officially entered the race to replace Arizona Attorney General Terry Goddard in 2010.
Rotellini, a Democrat who formed an exploratory committee last month, announced Tuesday that she was converting it into a full-fledged campaign committee.
"The overwhelming response I've received to my exploratory effort over the last several weeks has convinced me more than ever that I am the right candidate to run for attorney general," Rotellini said in a statement. "As I travel around the state talking to Arizonans, they tell me they want a tough, disciplined prosecutor ...

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Arpaio deputizes 15 ICE agents

(author unknown) — Sun, 25 Oct 2009 21:29:53 PDT

Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio said he deputized 15 U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents this weekend even as his agency spares with the federal government over immigration raids.

Cavazos named Phoenix city manager

(author unknown) — Mon, 26 Oct 2009 21:12:36 PDT

The city of Phoenix has picked David Cavazos as its next city manager. Cavazos, who will succeed the retiring Frank Fairbanks, is the first Hispanic to serve as Phoenix city manager and currently serves as deputy city manager.

You’re as sick as your secrets, Joel

Donna — Tue, 27 Oct 2009 15:46:16 PDT

Yesterday the Capitol Times reported that MCSO Captain and SCA commando Joel Fox is feeling very down.

The Sheriff’s captain who headed up a secretive political committee that broke campaign finance laws in its efforts to support Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio last year is threatening to sue the county for “emotional distress” unless it pays him $75,000.

Capt. Joel Fox, a veteran of the Maricopa County Sheriff’s Office, filed a notice of claim with the county Oct. 23, which is the first step under state law for government employees to sue an employer.

Awwww…. Ordinarily, I reserve my sympathy for people who have truly been victimized in some way. Like, you know, sex abuse victims. Who are the people whose suffering and pain those SCA creeps made a mockery of with their disgusting ad that smeared a Sheriff’s candidate – himself a victim of child sex abuse – as a predator. In the case of Capt. Fox, I can see where he may be feeling some genuine emotional distress. However, his angst is entirely self-inflicted. I would suggest to Joel that one thing he could do to feel better immediately is to stop keeping the secrets that fester in his psyche. Let it out, Joel. Talk. Preferably to a prosecutor or investigator. And for crimeny’s sake, do us all a favor and get yourself an attorney. The first step is admitting you have a problem. Then you need to work on stopping the behavior that compounds the problem. Your addiction to doing the bidding of sociopaths is harming you and the people around you.

Speaking of Arpaio, just wanted to give y’all a heads up that Channel 5 is doing a major report on his problems with the FBI on Thursday. I’ll post more details as I get them.

Prop. 200 would damage some of city's best crime-fighting tools

(author unknown) — Mon, 26 Oct 2009 00:00:00 PDT

My grandfather was the Sierra Vista police chief during the late 1950s. I grew up listening to incredible stories about how he chased the mafia out of town during one of their most powerful periods.

On Prop. 200, resist ballot-box budgeting

(author unknown) — Mon, 26 Oct 2009 00:00:00 PDT

Taxpayers in Tucson, courtesy of Proposition 200, are being asked to amend the city Charter to strip the current and future City Councils of their authority to establish budgets for the police and fire departments. The Arizona Tax Research Association strongly urges Tucson taxpayers to reject this effort at ballot-box budgeting.

Prop. 200 is attempt by GOP to gain power

(author unknown) — Mon, 26 Oct 2009 00:00:00 PDT

Proposition 200, the Public Safety First initiative, changes the city Charter to require increased police and fire personnel. The initiative does not specify a funding source for the increased services. It is one of those "unfunded mandates" that has Republicans at the state level so exercised.

Joe Arpaio & Lt. Joe Sousa: We Don't Need No Stinking Badges!

Stephen Lemons — Fri, 23 Oct 2009 08:06:03 PDT

In a mentally-challenged media stunt, made more so by the ravings of Rhode Island redneck Lt. Joe Sousa, Sheriff Joe's self-described unit commander for human smuggling, MCSO's 287(g) task force...

Continue reading "Joe Arpaio & Lt. Joe Sousa: We Don't Need No Stinking Badges!" >

Political notebook : Oh, the statement you could make for Halloween

(author unknown) — Sun, 25 Oct 2009 00:00:00 PDT

Americans were all over the Sarah Palin glasses-and-updo combo last year, but the National Retail Federation this season says politicians have all but dropped off the costume map.

New GOP Poll Shows Jan Brewer to be Top Elephant in Governor's Race

James King — Thu, 22 Oct 2009 12:47:43 PDT

In a seemingly meager attempt to impress, the Vernon Parker Exploratory Committee issued a press release today about some "interesting" new poll results for the 2010 gubernatorial election...

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Goddard to Brewer: No more cuts for AG's office

Patti Epler — Wed, 21 Oct 2009 21:29:54 PDT

By Patti Epler
The Arizona Guardian

Attorney General Terry Goddard has joined the list of state agency heads telling Gov. Jan Brewer that his budget has had all the cuts it can take.

In a letter to Brewer, Goddard said his agency has already been reduced to spending levels that have set it back at least 10 years.

"We simply could not sustain further general fund cuts without exposing the state to substantial threats to public safety or litigation risks that would far exceed the short-term savings that might be achieved," Goddard wrote.

Goddard was responding to Brewer's request from all agencies for scenarios that showed how they would cut 15 percent from their budgets. For the Attorney General's Office, that would amount to about $3 million of its $20 million general fund appropriation, Goddard said.

Brewer had wanted the budget-cut scenarios in order to demonstrate what sort of deep cuts would have to be made she tried to fill the $1.5 billion budget shortfall solely through reductions to state agencies. She wants a comprehensive solution that would include a mix of some cuts and new revenue such as the temporary hike in the state sales tax she has been seeking.

But legislative leaders said they would not allow crippling cuts to agencies, particularly public safety functions. They say Brewer is using the scenarios as a scare tactic.

Both the governor's office and GOP lawmakers have said they are working to put together budget proposals that could be considered in a special session as soon as November.

Greg Stanton, a special assistant to Goddard, said Wednesday that the money from the AG's general fund goes in large part to pay for criminal lawyers in the agency. A cut of that magnitude would mean having to lay off attorneys at a time when the agency is involved in several big cases.

"Now is the exact wrong time for us to be doing that," Stanton said.

Instead, Goddard wants to use money from "limited purpose funds" that hold cash from settlements in recent civil cases. The funds have enough to offset the 15 percent cuts Brewer has requested and still leave enough to pay salaries, expert witness fees and other expenses of litigation, Goddard wrote.

But, Goddard said, the funds should not be eyed for additional sweeps to help balance the state's budget. That could have "devastating consequences" for the state, he said, which needs the money in those accounts to continue action in cases like the litigation involving the tobacco companies and consumer fraud cases.

Goddard noted that the AG's workload has jumped significantly in recent months. A "dramatic increase" in financial crime, fraud, child abuse and claims against state government has been sparked by the bad economy. State agencies need more help than ever with the review of contracts, rules and regulations and "novel legal issues" are arising. And budget decisions made by the Legislature have prompted numerous lawsuits and legal action against the state that the AG's office must respond to, Goddard said.

Brewer and Goddard have agreed to meet to talk about AG budget and the possibility of using money from the special funds, Stanton said.

The men who would be Frank

About Rogue Columnist — Fri, 23 Oct 2009 00:00:00 PDT

Four finalists have reportedly emerged to replace retiring Phoenix City Manager Frank Fairbanks. All are current City of Phoenix employees. They're good men, and David Krietor and Ed Zuercher especially hold promise. Still, the finalist lineup reinforces the sense of Phoenix's parochialism and inward-looking mindset. It's a problem that extends far beyond City Hall. But it's significant given government's huge footprint in a city with no major corporate headquarters, influential civic stewards or powerful business interests beyond building more sprawl (which apparently extends to self-dealing city council members). There is, simply, no other major American city as limited as Phoenix in its economy or centers of power -- or its lack of self-awareness. So something that elsewhere might seem routine, carries big weight and risk here.

This is also a portentous moment for a changing of the guard. When Fairbanks became city manager in 1990, Phoenix was in a nasty real-estate recession but otherwise still on a sunny trajectory it had enjoyed since the end of World War II. City Hall's reputation for clean government and efficiency earned it the Bertelsmann Prize as one of the two best-run cities in the world. In the early '90s, the city still had corporate leaders such as Dial and Valley National Bank. Chastened by the real-estate bust, leaders established the Greater Phoenix Economic Council and worked to diversify the economy. Phoenix was the uncontested regional leader; the suburbs were still relatively small. Its population was much more middle class.

Fairbanks' successor will inherit a far different city, and not merely one that has grown to 1.5 million from 983,000 in 1990.

Phoenix has slowly seen its economic and political influence eroded by the suburbs -- the nightmare that caused decades of City Councils to continue annexing until the city reached 517 square miles in size, to no avail. The region's limited technology sector is focused in Chandler. Similarly, Wells Fargo chose Chandler, rather than downtown Phoenix, for its thousands of back-office employees. What remains as Arizona's corporate and entrepreneurial center is at the Scottsdale Airport. Scores of office "parks" in surrounding suburbs have taken Phoenix jobs in the zero-sum game left when real economic development was tossed aside in favor of the growth machine. Phoenicians were suckered into paying for the freeways that sucked away their city's jobs and much of its middle class.

Ominously, Phoenix has aged into a Sun Belt version of the older eastern cities it sought to avoid emulating. It has a huge underclass in miles of linear slums (once the tract houses of the middle-class American dream). The suburbs ensure that the region's social problems are dumped on Phoenix. While the city has its own "suburbs," with little loyalty or sense of community with the central core, it can no longer win in the development-fee or sales-tax battles against the newer suburbs. Unfortunately, it has no real economic strategy to replace the old model. The effort to create a Texas Medical Center-style complex in downtown Phoenix has been badly bungled. A retro move to establish a "second downtown" on the edge of north Snottsdale has ended in the state Supreme Court, threatening all city economic efforts.

Meanwhile, the city has few friends and many determined enemies in the Legislature. This has made every major project a battle royal, for the Kookocracy is both uncomprehending of, and hostile to, the needs and issues facing cities. State shared revenue was already leaving Phoenix for the suburbs, even before the economic crash. The Legislature has been a key impediment to making speedy advances on the Phoenix Biomedical Campus or downtown ASU -- failures that have helped freeze the city in a poor position compared with its rivals nationally and internationally.

The convention center, ASU campus and light rail have all been successes. Unfortunately, they also showcase Phoenix's weaknesses, all being creatures of city funding rather than a robust private sector. The empire of Sky Harbor International Airport, once Krietor's domain, rolls along, although it seems to benefit the suburbs a tad more than the city. All the finalists for city manager have had a hand in the advances. One, Rick Naimark, gets demerits from me for turning the Henson Homes Hope VI project into an ugly suburban clone instead of an extension of the center city -- and turning old Henson's grass and trees into gravel (although that may have come from "Rock" Fairbanks). Indeed, the Hope VI came from the efforts of a neighborhood group; the city was disinterested and even hostile at first -- which tells you something about the insularity of City Hall.

In any event, Fairbanks successor will take over a very different Phoenix -- and these were the challenges that existed before the Great Recession cratered government spending, crashed the growth machine and permanently altered much of the economic landscape -- and all to Phoenix's disadvantage. The winner might find himself in the mindset of President Kennedy the day he was visited in the Oval Office by his likely 1964 opponent, Sen. Barry Goldwater. A weary Kennedy said: "So you want this fucking job?"

In Phoenix, it may well be a job that has outlived its usefulness. Phoenix is by far the largest city with a council-manager form of government. That worked fine in the moment of history that Phoenix arose, when the automobile and sprawl seemed like the bright future, and when it was a smaller place. Now it makes change difficult, particularly the radical measures needed to revive Phoenix. A strong mayor, combined with smaller council districts alongside a few at-large members may be the only thing that finally shakes up a city government that's still living in 1993. That's still living in Fairbanks' "move slowly across the water without making waves" mindset. Phoenix is in decline. City Hall, the town's last major headquarters, just doesn't realize it.

Arpaio won’t close door on possible gubernatorial run

(author unknown) — Thu, 22 Oct 2009 13:18:29 PDT

Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio won’t close the door on a possible run for governor next year, saying he is confident he could win if he ran.

Arpaio's Policies Include Shackling During Birth

Manuél — Thu, 22 Oct 2009 14:43:47 PDT

Last summer, I covered the horrific story of Juana de la Paz being shackled during labor and, after the birth of her child, prevented from breastfeeding. That outrageous human rights abuse occured in Tennessee.

Well, Sheriff Joe Arpaio has brought this scourge of inhumane policy to Maricopa County:

During her second night behind bars, the bleeding started. On the morning of October 14, she felt contractions. Her hands and feet shackled, she was in labor and ushered into a paramedic's van by a detention officer who restrained her to the stretcher.

"That's not necessary," the paramedic told the officer.

"It's my job," the officer responded. The guard was a Latina.

She thought she would be released from the shackles once she arrived at the hospital, but she wasn't.

The officer chained her ankle to one leg of the hospital bed.

A nurse requested that she be freed to get a urine sample. But the officer suggested instead that her bed be dragged over to the bathroom.

Later she was changed from her jail uniform into a hospital gown.

"The officer chained me by the feet and the hands to the bed," she said. "And that's how my daughter was born."
Phoenix New Times

The Department of Justice needs to get off its ass and finish up their investigation so this domestic terrorism can end.

Joe Arpaio Battles Isabel Garcia on Anderson Cooper 360

Stephen Lemons — Thu, 22 Oct 2009 20:00:03 PDT

For those who didn't catch it, here's the segment from Anderson Cooper 360 on CNN last night, which featured a face-off between Sheriff Joe and Isabel Garcia, Pima County Legal Defender and Co-Cha...

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