Printable VersionPHOENIX — If you’re at the Arizona Legislature trying to fend off a budget cut or promote a tax cut, create a new program or kill one, talk jobs — saving them, creating them, embracing them.
“It’s creating jobs. There’s no ifs, ands or buts about it. Jobs are always part of the testimony,” said Jack Moortel, a lobbyist who worked as an aide to three former Arizona governors.
Some examples:
• A proposed sales-tax increase to help balance the state budget would drain money from the private sector, costing Arizona an estimated 14,000 jobs, the Goldwater Institute said, citing a study it commissioned. “That is roughly the equivalent of every worker at PetsMart, Circle K, Harkins Theaters, Starbucks and UPS in Arizona losing their job.”
• Rural communities’ economies would be rocked by closures of state parks unless lawmakers approve temporary funding to offset budget cuts, Rep. Andy Tobin, R-Paulden, said in an e-mail headlined: “Tourism jobs at risk.”
• Trying to fend off legislation to block its plan for a casino resort in suburban Glendale, the Tohono O’odham Indian Nation said the project would generate thousands of jobs — “jobs which are desperately needed in Arizona’s recession-laden economy, and jobs which could be created without a single dollar of Arizona taxpayers’ money.”
• Gov. Jan Brewer’s call to reduce state health programs, including taking 310,000 Arizonans off the rolls of the state Medicaid program, would cost Arizona an estimated 42,000 jobs throughout the economy, the hospital association said, citing a study it commissioned.
“These economists are making a mint — there’s no loss of economist jobs right now,” observed Mike Gardner, a former legislator who is now a lobbyist for clients ranging from major corporations to community colleges.
More seriously, Gardner said jobs are a real concern — both at the Legislature and everywhere else — because of the poor economy.
“It’s what the clients are talking about, what the citizens are talking about, what the employees of the companies are talking about,” said Gardner. “It filters up to me so I communicate that to lawmakers.”
Gardner said some legislators are becoming jaded after hearing so many jobs-based arguments, particularly claimed threats to jobs. “It’s always a pitch. The question is how much of it is accurate,” he said.
“You hear that all the time,” confirmed Rep. Russ Jones, R-Yuma. “It’s overused because it’s an easy one to make.”
But the potency of jobs as a concern for lawmakers was evident Thursday with the death of high-profile legislation that would have relaxed the state’s renewable energy standards. The bill would have the effect of requiring utilities to buy less solar power.
Solar power advocates said the bill would undermine the state’s fledgling industry — and its potential to add thousands of high-paying jobs. One solar-panel manufacturer said during a Tuesday committee hearing that enactment of the bill would force it to reconsider plans to put a 70-job factory in Goodyear.
The bill’s supporters buckled two days later, saying the bill was dead.
House Speaker Kirk Adams, one of the bill’s co-sponsors, defended the measure, but pledged support for the renewable energy industry, calling it “a key source of new jobs and help pull our state out of the recession.”
Jobs were already an oft-mentioned topic, starting even before the session officially got under way Jan. 11.
House Republicans on Jan. 5 announced legislation they dubbed the “Arizona’s job recovery act.” The sweeping package of future tax cuts and business tax incentives for creating new jobs has been passed by the House and sent to the Senate.
While Democrat critics called it a corporate bailout and said the state couldn’t afford the revenue loss, Adams and other supporters said Arizona needs to encourage businesses to relocate and expand in Arizona.
“Arizona is not as competitive as it needs to be with job retention and job growth,” he said at a Jan. 5 news conference outside an aerospace plant in Mesa.
Article Rating