Stating her case
Governor Napolitano stresses education, transportation and growth in her fifth State of the State speech, as House Speaker Jim Weiers looks on.

Gov. Janet Napolitano outlined a series of education improvements and proposed linking new funding for transportation improvements to local governments’ participation in a new growth planning process.
Napolitano proposed the linkage during her State of the State address Jan. 8, the fifth of her career, to Republican-dominated senators and representatives who earlier in the day were sworn into office by retired U.S. Supreme Court Justice Sandra Day O’Connor.
Napolitano, a Democrat who was re-elected in November to a second four-year term, used her address to call for new or enhanced attention on a host of concerns, ranging from public education and economic development to water and other growth planning issues.
Napolitano focused much of her speech on education, “the heart of my plan,” as she discussed proposals that had been aired in recent months.
Those included raising the minimum dropout age to 18 from the current 16, increasing the state’s high school math requirement to four years from the current two, setting a minimum $33,000 base salary for public school teachers and providing incentives for teachers in highly sought specialty areas.
She also called for modernizing school buildings, accelerating distribution of state test results and promoting innovation by teachers and other educators.
“Our schools will be exciting and driven by a new ethic of discovery and curiosity,” Napolitano said. “They will be led by teachers who are highly regarded and well compensated, and they will produce graduates that will thrive in an economy where creativity, ingenuity and adaptation are the rules of the game.”
In other proposals and declarations made in the speech, Napolitano:
Urged increasing eligibility for state-subsidized health insurance for low-income children and repealing a law that prohibits the state from conducting outreach for the program through schools.
Declared that urban trust land previously designated for conservation as open space under a since-scrapped program would not be sold for non-conservation reasons without local consent.
Announced she’d signed a new executive order requiring projects on state property to include pollution reductions.
Said she would move to expand border-related anti-crime programs while continuing to press Congress to approve comprehensive immigration reform.
Most of Napolitano’s proposals were delivered in broad strokes with few details. Some will surface in the proposed budget she releases Jan. 12.
On transportation, she proposed changing state law to permit refinancing existing bonds for transportation to 30 years from the current 20, an effort she said would free up $400 million to help pay for road work and other projects to relieve traffic congestion that imposes a “time tax” on Arizonans.
“It’s an especially onerous price to pay because it cuts into what we value most: our time with our families, our friends — time spent at home, in our communities,” she said.
However, she said elsewhere in the speech that local governments that want money from the additional $400 million in highway construction money would have to agree to participate in a new “smart growth and development process” that she’d ordered an expanded “Growth Cabinet” of state agency heads to develop.
“We don’t want to do state mandates but we want to have incentives for communities to participate in regional growth planning and quality growth planning,” Napolitano said during a brief interview as she returned to her office after the speech. “I think this will be well received by the city and county organizations.”
Reaction
A top official of the League of Arizona Cities and Towns said he was “a little surprised” by the proposed linkage and wanted to learn more.
“If these are tax dollars that are paid by all citizens, everyone should have an opportunity to get a shot at them,” said league Executive Director Ken Strobeck. “On the other hand, I certainly understand the idea that it’s a coordinated infrastructure system and not necessarily projects that don’t fit together.”
Senate Majority Leader Thayer Verschoor, R-22, representing a suburban district hungry for freeway construction, said he “would be very cautious in delaying any highway funding.”
Verschoor said lawmakers would consider Napolitano’s bond refinancing proposals as well as other options to pay for highway work.
Senate President Tim Bee, R-30, said Napolitano’s speech was a “very positive message,” but he and fellow lawmakers lack detail on key aspects of her wish-list, and House Speaker Jim Weiers said it remains to be seen how the state would pay for it.
“She’s got quite an extensive shopping list,” said Weiers, R-10.
Weiers also said Napolitano’s address appeared to put little emphasis on border and immigration concerns. “You just can’t dismiss it. It’s there, even in the (high school) dropout rate,” he said. “There is a direct correlation. It should have been at the core if not the premise of the entire speech.”
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