Arizona Capitol Times Your Inside Source for Arizona Government, Politics and Business

Just like all Arizonans, Democrats are frustrated with the total lack of leadership during this budget crisis. It is ludicrous that the Legislature has had seven months to pass a budget and still can't get the job done. This kind of behavior is unacceptable; as the special session goes on, critical public safety and health care programs still have no budget during the biggest economic shortfall of our lifetime.

For the past four years, a group of people have been meeting with Maricopa County Planning and Development staff members behind closed doors to amend a zoning ordinance that will affect properties countywide. The issue will go before the County Board of Supervisors for a vote on Aug. 19, yet property owners know little of its existence.

An article in the July 24 edition of the Capitol Times, “The curious death of the ‘Father of Arizona'”, is correctly – although incompletely – reported. Abraham Lincoln actually was the second president to name Arizona a territory. The first ...

Sides have been chosen in the national fight to reform health insurance. The New York Times called it "a battle between individualism and socialization in medicine which promises to be of long duration." Long duration is right.

Several otherwise conservative legislators are thinking very hard about capitulating to Gov. Jan Brewer's scheme to put on the ballot an 18-percent increase in Arizona's sales tax rate. Those legislators have argued they could wring more spending reductions out of the governor by allowing the sales tax referendum to go to the ballot.

It's against a distressing fiscal backdrop that the subject of the Arizona's gaming policy has come due for review. Briefly expressed, that policy holds that some number of the state's Native American tribes shall be allowed indefinitely to reap billions of dollars from gambling receipts, and everyone else shall reap precious little.

President Obama should immediately rebuke the members of his Cabinet who are threatening the State of Arizona over stimulus money as a result of U.S. Senator Jon Kyl's declaration that stimulus spending should be halted and redirected to more worthwhile purposes such as health care.

The United States Senate has held a confirmation hearing for Judge Sonia Sotomayor, President Obama's nominee to the Supreme Court. As the top Republican on the Senate Judiciary Committee, I had pledged that the hearing will be fair and respectful - but also thorough and rigorous.

The Arizona Capitol Times article regarding placing an affirmative action ban on the 2010 ballot ("Senate moves affirmative-action ban to 2010 ballot," June 26, 2009) was an eye-opener. Rep. Steve Montenegro's picture caption had an enormous impact.

I graduated from Arizona State University's College of Business and am the owner of a commercial construction company. Because of my strong belief in the benefits of a well-educated work force to the business community, I have served on the ASU Foundation Board and now on the ASU Board of Trustees.