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

Since the passage of the Troubled Assets Relief Program, the stimulus bills, and the recent health care bill, I have become increasingly concerned regarding the direction of our country.

KidsCare offers affordable health insurance for children in working families. It has been an Arizona success story for more than 10 years, helping thousands of children grow up healthy and strong. But a year ago, Gov. Jan Brewer and our legislative leaders began cutting KidsCare.

I applaud those in Congress who are championing the case for competition on the Joint Strike Fighter. It’s the poster child for acquisition reform if there ever was one.

Late last June, the lack of a state budget produced the very real possibility that on July 1, the Windsor Beach unit of Lake Havasu State Park would not open. This situation worried citizens and business owners in Lake Havasu City, because July 4 is one of the busiest times of the summer boating season and Windsor Beach provides primary boating access to Lake Havasu and the Colorado River.

It’s been a dozen years since Arizona voters passed the landmark Citizens Clean Elections Act, allowing candidates to seek office without depending on corporate brass, labor unions and deep-pocketed special interests. Clean Elections has given community leaders, teachers and small business folk the chance to run for office and govern answerable not to Big Money, but to Arizona’s voters.

Every now and then a crisis emerges in which our response clearly displays what kind of people we are. Whether it is natural disaster or a man-made political crisis, our reaction sends an important message to others about our values, our sense of responsibility and how we solve problems.

As of March 18, the state's primary source of transit operating money and federal matching dollars for expensive and specialized capital equipment was permanently repealed as part of the state's budget solution. Oddly, not a penny of that money came from tax dollars or the state general fund, yet it was redirected so that the state could capture the already-designated revenue.

Every industrialized country on Earth delivers health care to its people at a far lower per-person cost than the United States. How do they do that?

When Phoenix realized that it faced a projected $245 million budget shortfall for the coming fiscal year, new City Manager David Cavazos requested that every department submit proposed budget reductions ranging from 7 to 25 percent. Those proposals were placed on his desk in November and early December. But when the Goldwater Institute asked for them, they disappeared into a black hole.

Seriously, are you happy with Arizona's leadership? I'm not. There's not a lot to be happy about right now. Arizona has become the only state in the union to eliminate its Children's Health Insurance Program, KidsCare.