Guest Opinion: Right-Wing Agenda Will Obscure our Most-Pressing Issues
By Gabrielle Giffords
Tucson Citizen Op-Ed
Today the people of Arizona will feel the effects of a Legislature taking a hard turn to the right. As tradition dictates, Gov. Janet Napolitano will deliver a State of the State address for today’s opening of the 2005 session.
We can expect her to discuss Arizona’s many pressing needs, including full implementation of all-day kindergarten, a statewide plan to reduce water use by 5 percent to cope with the drought, and a teacher excellence program to recruit and retain highly qualified teachers in underserved communities.
People need to pay close attention to how the Legislature responds to these initiatives, because it will be significantly different from last year.
The previous two Legislatures enjoyed the benefits of a working coalition consisting of Democrats and middle-of-the-road Republicans.
This coalition was able to pass a budget that met many of the state’s needs without raising taxes. It is interesting to note that a statewide poll taken last July found that support for the Legislature was at its highest point in five years.
About 34 percent of people rated our performance “excellent” or “good” in that survey, a 25 percent increase from just a few months earlier.
But the 2004 election took its toll on our bipartisan coalition.
Due to a lack of competitive legislative districts and low voter turnout during GOP primaries, a fairly large crop of mostly conservative Republicans will dominate the House and Senate in 2005.
Based on the many bills already drafted, there are clear signs that our constitutionally required 100-day session could be consumed by attempts to impose a radical social ideology on all of Arizona.
Bills to ban abortion and same-sex marriages are likely to make headlines.
Any measures the governor fails to sign into law likely will be referred to voters in 2006 or be used against her when she runs for re-election.
While these measures consume our energies, a number of significant problems will receive far less attention than they deserve. Arizona continues to be the second fastest-growing state in the nation, but this growth is occurring without the benefit of high-paying jobs or the necessary infrastructure to attract them.
Most of our economic growth is coming from retail or low-income service jobs.
People are coming here to enjoy our open spaces, but this rapid growth continues to threaten our environment and strain our systems for education, health care and transportation.
We are tasked to find solutions to many unresolved problems, such as Students First, the Arnold v. Sarn court decision mandating improvements to our mental health systems, and the need to repay more than $350 million mandated by Ladewig v. Arizona.
We should be devoting time and energy to the federal No Child Left Behind mandate and to the alarming number of Arizona students who may not earn a high school diploma because they are unable to pass the AIMS test.
Arizona is not alone in facing major obstacles. Legislatures in all 50 states will struggle during 2005 to meet the needs of 52 million poor and disabled Americans who must rely on Medicaid for health care.
The caseload served here by the Arizona Health Care Cost Containment System has been growing four times faster than any other state expenditure, according to a recent national report.
As of mid-December, more than 1 million people were enrolled in AHCCCS, costing us $4.3 billion. This burden won’t get any lighter during fiscal year 2005.
More employers are deciding that they cannot afford to offer health care benefits to their workers.
Some of them are small businesses, but even large corporations are forcing workers to turn to public health systems.
A study by the University of California-Berkeley found that taxpayers were paying $86 million a year in that state to cover the health needs of Wal-Mart employees.
In the past, Arizona voters have been quick to rein in elected officials who get out of hand.
It will be interesting, indeed, to see whether people decide in the next election to clip the far right wing of this new legislative majority.
