Rantings on Arizona

 

I'd like to share my thoughts on 2 issues Arizonans are dealing with today.  One is the new Immigration Law.  If this stay at home mom can find and read the bill, why can't the leaders in our capital read it before they open their mouths in condemnation of our state, our leaders, and the 70 % of Arizonans that support the new law?  The bill is only 13 pages!! After explaining why the State Department "expressed regret" to China for our immigration law, their spokesman also admitted to not reading the Arizona Immigration law. Although President Obama thinks "information can be a distraction", our governor is encouraging everyone to actually read the law which you can do here.

Many of you may not know that I am the secretary of the Marana Police Citizen's Advisory Commission.  In our last meeting, Chief Tometich informed us that before this law was passed the police already called Border Patrol if they happened to stop someone without a valid Driver's License and they could not produce the correct papers for a traffic violation or in regards to a crime .  The problem was that they were only allowed to detain them for 20 minutes.  If Border Patrol could not be there in 20 minutes, they were forced to let them walk free.  Might as well kiss them on the forehead and wish them well!  He said the only difference is that they will need to transport them to a detention facility if Border Patrol can't come get them now.

Read the law!

The second issue is Proposition 100 that passed yesterday.  I had the privilege to work the elections as a Judge.  I worked the Marana poll at the Parks and Recreation Building.  Before the election,  all the workers guessed how many voters we would have vote.  I guessed 130 voters.  For the Presidential election, they had over 460 vote.  Special elections usually have a low turn out rate.

Well, we had over 540 people come vote at our polling place!  Amazing!  I am so grateful that so many people participated in the election process.  We had many who voted for the first time and many who voted who had been inactive (hadn't voted in a long time). We had husbands and wives voting opposite each other. People felt this was an important vote.  So many times you hear people complain about government leaders, laws, taxes, etc...  and they didn't vote.  How can you complain if you didn't vote?


Proposition 101 proposed a 1 % sales tax increase to help fund education and public safety earmarking the majority of the generated revenue from the tax heading to education.  I know none of us are excited about a tax increase.  This tax hike will raise our sales tax in Marana to  9.1%.   As much as I hate a tax increase and know that it won't fix the complete deficits our school systems are facing, I hope it will help the schools. 

Here's some information you may not know.


K-12 Education Per Pupil Funding
• Arizona ranks 50th in the nation in any fair comparison of per pupil spending.
• Arizona spends $6,248 per pupil (2006-07), $3,000 less than the national average of $9,389.
• Every national ranking of per pupil funding consistently shows Arizona at or near the bottom of
the 50 states.
• From 1986-87 through 2006-07, Arizona’s percentage change in expenditure per pupil has
been -0.96%, while nationally it was 36.56%. This means that Arizona has actually
decreased its relative per pupil funding while other states have increased their expenditures.
 
Source: American Legislative Exchange Council Report Card on American Education, 2006-07 figures.


This is a 3 year tax increase and historically these taxes have not gone away after the allotted time.  I hope that the leaders, administrators, and educators are working together to look for long term fixes that won't require a long term tax hike.  

I voted for it, so you won't hear me complain.  :-)