Arizona’s general stream adjudications must be expedited

The adjudication of all water rights in the Gila River and Little Colorado River systems will place great demands upon the Arizona Department of Water Resources.

The department’s administrative and technical assistance is crucial to the progress of these proceedings. Over 30 years of litigation have shown that these cases are extremely complex, and while much progress has been made on several fronts, the work to be done to complete the first phase of the adjudications, which involves identifying, quantifying and prioritizing thousands of water rights claims, must be expedited.

The department assists the Adjudication Court by overseeing service of process, conducting field investigations, maintaining a document repository, providing assistance to the clerks of the Superior Court, and preparing a variety of technical reports. Without significant increased funding for technical staff, travel, and equipment, the department will be unable to fulfill responsibilities mandated by the general stream adjudication statutes, and the adjudications will be further delayed.

The Adjudication Court has set the priorities the department should give to the various projects pending in both cases. The department has undertaken these priorities as well as its budget has allowed. The first priority, which deals with subflow issues in the Gila River Adjudication, is extensive and demanding. In the Little Colorado River Adjudication, the completion of a hydrographic survey report for the Hopi Indian Reservation remains the primary directive.

In the near future, the department’s support will be especially needed in contested cases addressing Indian and other federal reserved water rights, various legal issues of first impression and statewide importance, consideration of the Zuni Indian Tribe Water Rights Settlement Act in the Little Colorado River Adjudication and the Arizona Water Settlements Act in the Gila River Adjudication.

The people of this state are not well served by the continuing uncertainty over water issues. Arizona’s greatly improved financial health dictates it is now time to ensure that the adjudication’s progress in the next decade greatly surpasses that of the last 30 years.

By George A. Schade Jr., who is special master with Arizona General Stream Adjudication, Superior Court of Arizona

State needs to invest in the arts

Arizona Action for the Arts has appreciated the commitment of the Legislature and the Governor’s Office over the last two years in continuing the investment into the Arizona Commission on the Arts and the annual deposit to the ArtShare arts endowment.

As Arizona continues to grow, it is important that both public and private investment in the arts continue to grow as well. As we look to attract and retain quality businesses and knowledge-workers to our state, improve our children’s education, and continue to grow our tourism industry, the arts are an increasingly important part of our state’s strategic actions aimed at an enhanced Arizona.

Students who are highly involved in arts instruction earn better grades, perform better on standardized tests, perform more community service, and are less likely to drop out of school. Sixty-five percent of American adult travelers include cultural events in their trips; and these cultural tourists spend more, are more likely to use a hotel, and travel longer. The dollars that the state invests in these ventures through the Arts Commission’s appropriation and ArtShare are returned exponentially.

For several years the state was unable to keep its agreement to deposit $2 million annually to ArtShare, which caps at $20 million. Other years the state was forced to borrow funds from the endowment’s principal. It is our hope that during this budget surplus the state can finally complete its investment in the ArtShare endowment by depositing the remainder of its $7 million balance in the fund. This public contribution has already successfully leveraged more than $34 million in private donations to arts organizations’ endowments.

We are also hopeful that the state will return funding to the cuts that the Arizona Commission on the Arts’ appropriation sustained in fiscal years 2001 and 2002. In addition to the restoration in actual dollars, we would like to see increases commensurate with performance and population.

Arizona Commission on the Arts Executive Director Robert Booker says, “I look forward to thoughtful conversations with our elected leaders on the economic, educational, and public value of the arts across our great state. We have a dynamic arts community in Arizona, public support along with corporate, foundation, and individual contributions will continue to grow this infrastructure to serve our state’s interest into the future.”

By Lisle Soukup, executive director for Arizona Action for the Arts

100 ideas for 100 days

Growing up, we were taught to find the owner when we stumbled upon someone’s wallet. If all else failed, we returned it to the local police station for safekeeping. We all understood the principle at stake: You can’t keep what doesn’t belong to you. So it is with the budget surplus.

As the legislative session gets under way, the multi-million-dollar surplus is the multi-million-dollar question. During the State of the State address, the governor called for using the surplus as a down payment on a larger and more expensive state government. Legislators, too, have plenty of ideas for spending the surplus. Both branches of government seem to start from the premise that the surplus is their money. Oh, for times past.

The Goldwater Institute has just released 100 Ideas for 100 Days (and a few more for good measure) to reduce the burden of government on taxpayers and promote growth in the private sector. Recommendations range from requiring the Arizona Department of Education to disclose accurate figures on public education expenditures to fundamental tax reform. There are also many ideas to lower the tax burden and increase take home pay for all workers (not just state employees).

Arizona government has been growing much faster than the population for years. Last year alone, spending rose 12 percent. A tax break is long overdue.

There may be 100 ways to spend the surplus, or even 1,000, but only one of them is right: reward hardworking Arizonans with the tax cut they earned.

By Darcy Olsen, president & CEO of the Goldwater Institute

Target meth, identity theft and gas price gouging

The meth epidemic, identity theft, human smuggling and price gouging rank among the top priorities for the Attorney General’s Office in the 2006 Legislature.

The AG’s Office advocates a comprehensive plan that will protect our children, neighborhoods, local police and firefighters from the dangers of methamphetamine labs. The proposal emphasizes prevention, aiming to keep cold tablets out of the hands of local meth cooks. The office will continue to fight the importation of meth from Mexico, educate children about the perils of meth and expand treatment options for those who fall into this drug’s pernicious grip.

To curtail identity theft, the office supports legislation that would give citizens several new protections. It would require increased security of consumers’ financial records, require effective disposal of financial documents, provide mandatory notification to anyone whose financial information has been compromised and allow people to place a freeze on their credit if they believe their identity has been stolen.

To reduce human smuggling and auto theft, the office supports tougher penalties for using stolen vehicles to bring undocumented immigrants across the border. The office has established a nine-member Border Trafficking Team to
prosecute “coyotes” for human smuggling-related crimes that include kidnapping, auto theft, assault, money laundering and the sale of fake IDs.

The office will renew its support for a bill to stop price gouging in the event of supply emergencies, such as last year’s sharp run-up in gasoline prices after Hurricane Katrina. Legislation will also be sought to better protect consumers from predatory lending practices. The majority of states already have both price-gouging and predatory lending laws.

The office backs a significant pay raise for all state employees. Like many state agencies, the AG’s Office has experienced a relatively high turnover rate that is directly related to higher salaries offered by the private sector, local governments and neighboring state governments.

By Terry Goddard, Arizona Attorney General

Piecemeal tax cuts must be rejected

The Protecting Arizona’s Family Coalition remains united to promote and protect human services funding. PAFCO members, representing diverse groups, will not be pitted against one another or allow the needs of vulnerable populations to be traded off with one another in any budget negotiations.

The state budget surplus provides an opportunity to make needed investments in the health and human services infrastructure for Arizona’s families. Proposals such as TABOR and other piecemeal tax cuts must be rejected. Arizona has a unique opportunity this legislative session to make much needed investments in its health and human services infrastructure.

Human services have been underfunded for many years. Here are just a few examples of needed investments.

Thousands of women and children go without safety and shelter from domestic violence each year.

Hundreds of thousands of children and low income working adults go without needed health care coverage.

Childcare rates are outdated, limiting parents’ choices of quality services.

For 20 years, funding for persons with serious mental illness and substance abuse seeking healing and recovery has not addressed the need.

Children’s services for the most vulnerable are constantly stretched beyond their ability to respond.

Emergency services’ waiting lines grow throughout the state.

Over 30 people who were homeless died during the summer of 2005 on Arizona’s streets. Affordable housing is in short supply throughout the state.

People with disabilities have limited opportunities while rehabilitation services go underfunded.

Qualified, caring staff leave sensitive jobs due to poor pay and working conditions in which they help elders and others to remain independent.

We support the governor’s State of the State initiatives for more domestic violence shelter beds and to stop the abuse of children from the meth labs in the state.

Needs of vulnerable families continue to be severe. We believe it is our obligation as a society to protect and serve those most vulnerable among our citizens, whether they are children, adults or elderly. The measure of a humane society is how it treats its most vulnerable members.

By Timothy J. Schmaltz, who is coordinator/CEO for Protecting Arizona’s Family Coalition

1st action: Correct budget malfeasance

Thanks to a growing economy and feverish housing market, the Legislature opens anticipating an $850 million surplus, far different from the $1 billion deficit lawmakers faced just three years ago.

Many of our legislators hear “surplus” and think reduce revenues. Rep. Laura Knaperek, R-17, has called for a tax cut that would give typical families an extra $70, but cost the state $400 million. Rep. Steve Huffman, R-26, and Sen. Dean Martin, R-6, want to shortchange schools $200 million from property tax revenues and then use the state’s general fund to compensate. House and Senate Republican leadership have earmarked $250 million for tax reductions.

Such actions would be pennywise and pound-foolish. Our first priority must be correcting past budget malfeasance. Then we need to examine critical issues for the state’s future. AIMS testing has stolen the thunder, but more critically one in four 18 year olds drops out of school with a disproportionate share ending up in prison.

With low pay and high class sizes, we also face a looming teacher shortage. Meanwhile, bloated health care costs squeeze families and employers. Increasingly lower income working families rely on AHCCCS while other families have no insurance at all. Highway funding has not kept pace with growth. Individuals with a few dollars kicked their way will not solve these issues on their own. Public investment will be critical.

Employees are the creative engine that can improve any organization if given responsibility, resources, and respect. Unfortunately, our Legislature has spurned them for years. Kathy Peckardt, director of human resources for the state’s Department of Administration, testified in October that the average state salary was 22 percent below market and close to the bottom of 23 central region states. Adjusted for inflation, compared to 1990, state employees now earn just 87 cents on the dollar. In the last five years, employees’ take-home pay has risen just 2 percent, while inflation has run six times that rate.

Consequently, we have among the highest state employee quit rates in the country. Our most productive employees leave for better paying opportunities, creating chronic vacancies, inefficiencies, and threats to public safety. Last year the Legislature offered a mere 1.7 percent raise, which covered not rising prices, but a mandated increase in employee retirement contributions. The Legislature should implement the Joint Legislative Study Committee on State Employee Compensation’s 5-year, $616 million plan of across-the-board and performance-based pay increases to bring pay back on par with market levels starting with a significant initial step this year.

While revenues may be high now, it won’t last indefinitely. When revenues dip, unemployment climbs and so does demand for government services. In the 1990s, legislators chose $1.2 billion dollars in tax breaks instead of securing the rainy day fund, so when the 2001 recession hit, the fund was dry. The budget was balanced with numerous accounting tricks like rolling over the last month of K-12 spending into the next fiscal year. Now we need to straighten up the budget and add to the paltry $164 million in the budget stabilization fund.

Correcting accounting maneuvers and strengthening the fund will cost at least $500 million.

Then we can move on to addressing the state’s needs. One area is education.

Voter-approved Proposition 301 in 2000 mandated that the Legislature increase base school funding by at least 2 percent each year. Unfortunately, since that proposition passed, schools have yet to see an increase in funding that matched their increases in costs with this past year being no exception. Three percent of this year’s 3.7 percent increase actually covers increased contributions to the state retirement system, the remaining 0.7 percent hardly covers inflation.

When you stop to also consider options like reducing class size, expanding full-day kindergarten, adequately funding building maintenance, improving highways and addressing our serious health care challenges, you quickly realize that reducing the state’s revenue resources abandons our future.

By Dave Wells, who is on the faculty at Arizona State University