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

There has been plenty of misinformation about a resolution I’ve sponsored that is moving through the legislature, and I am trying to clear it up.

One of the most controversial bills in this year’s legislative session is HB2657, TPT reform. The TPT (Transaction Privilege Tax) is Arizona’s sales tax program, and it has been more than 80 years in the making. Last year, Gov. Jan Brewer appointed a task force to examine ways to make the system simpler for businesses to comply with.

Our beautiful state has many points of pride, but none compare to our namesake, the Grand Canyon State. One of the Seven Natural Wonders of the World, the Grand Canyon attracts nearly 5 million tourists a year.

For the past two months, the Arizona Capitol Times and the Arizona Center for Investigative Reporting have sifted through the more than 2.3 million votes cast in the 2012 election, with the goal of offering readers a deeper understanding of how Arizona voted.

Based on the Arizona Health Care Cost Containment System’s (AHCCCS) blueprint, Florida Gov. Rick Scott is rebuilding his state’s Medicaid program. He is the 21st governor to develop a broader Medicaid program. Finally, Florida can do what we in Arizona pioneered: Establish a private-public partnership where private health plans, not the government, coordinate health care for their patients. It’s refreshing to see states across the country emulating Arizona’s model of patient-centered care managed in the private marketplace.

In Gov. Jan Brewer’s recent State of the State speech, she spoke of protecting Arizona’s most vulnerable citizens. Certainly, we must protect children in danger of abuse or neglect, but what are we doing to protect another population which is just as vulnerable? Children and adults with developmental disabilities are struggling to find services in a system which has been cut so much in the last four years that it is operating, no failing, at just 70 percent reimbursement of costs.

Since the 2012 election, national news coverage about marijuana has focused almost solely on the states of Colorado and Washington, creating the impression the country is moving toward legalization. But anti-marijuana forces actually won most of the contests in 2012 and in 2010, and lost only when outspent by large margins.

During the past decade, guided by Arizona’s Bioscience Roadmap, Arizona has achieved great success in advancing its stake in the biosciences, which is one of the fastest growing sectors of the economy.

Last month, Lattie Coor, founder and chairman of the Center for the Future of Arizona, released their updated report, “The Arizona We Want 2.0”. This report is a summary of 10,000+ surveys and interviews of Arizona residents. The following chart in that report should send a wake-up call to Republican leadership at all levels across the state.

The proposed Obamacare Medicaid expansion is bad for taxpayers, bad for freedom and ultimately bad for Arizona’s health. The Supreme Court ruled that forcing the expansion of Medicaid is unconstitutional. In response, President Barack Obama has dangled the shiny object of federal funding in front of us. We shouldn’t be fooled into taking a bad deal.