AZ GOVERNOR SEEKS MEETING WITH FED HEALTH SECRETARY

posted by Michael Chihak

Gov. Jan Brewer wrote to U.S. Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius on Thursday asking for a meeting to discuss her requested waiver for Arizona regarding its Medicaid standards.

It's the second letter Brewer has sent to Sebelius in a week, the first one being the actual request for the waiver.

This time, the governor said she was encouraged that Sebelius has told the nation's governors that she wants to work with them to create a sustainable Medicaid system. At the same time, Brewer expressed worry that Sebelius might be thinking that she doesn't have the authority to waive a state's Medicaid benefits requirements.

" ... you appear uncertain whether you have authority to waive maintenance of effort requirements under the law," Brewer wrote in Thursday's letter. "I believe strongly that you do."

Brewer has asked the federal government to waive Arizona's voter-imposed benefit for health care for the poor, a move that would save the state $541.5 million and be the biggest step toward a balanced budget for 2011-12.

Such a move, though, would knock 280,000 poor Arizonans off of state-supported health care and would cause the state to lose $1 billion in federal matching money. That loss would cost the state 46,700 jobs, mostly in the private sector, an Arizona State University economist has estimated.

TUCSON CAN OVERCOME SPRING TRAINING LOSS, TOURISM OFFICIAL SAYS

posted by Michael Chihak

Tucson will be without spring training baseball this year for the first time in more than six decades.

Local economists estimated that when the city had three teams, just two years ago, their presence helped pump $30 million into the economy.

All three teams are gone now, lost to bigger, better and newer ballparks and other incentives in the Phoenix area.

Sherry Henry, executive director of the Arizona Office of Tourism, said this week she believes Tucson officials will use their creativity to replace the economic impact. She mentioned talks with professional baseball organizations in Japan and Korea and an alliance with the San Diego Padres AAA minor league team, to be known at least this coming season as the Tucson Padres.

No announcements have been made about foreign teams coming to Tucson, and the Padres are scheduled to be here for just this year, awaiting the construction of a new facility in suburban San Diego.

The $30 million in losses to the economy is a small amount, about one-tenth of 1 percent of Pima County's GDP.

But because the save baseball movement involved a cadre of recognizable Tucson business and civic leaders, from elected officials to leaders of the Tucson Metropolitan Chamber of Commerce, it's a blow to the collective ego that their efforts fell short.

QUESTIONS FOR TOURISM, HOSPITALITY OFFICIALS

posted by Michael Chihak

Here are some of the questions we will ask in our interviews today:

Is the 2011 tourism season in Arizona expected to rebound from the downturn of the last three years?

The Tucson Gem and Mineral shows and the Phoenix Open Golf Tournament are going on this week. How do they look for drawing visitors to get the season off to a good start?

Tucson will be without spring training baseball for the first time in more than 60 years. It's estimated to be a $30 million loss to the local economy. Will other attractions take up the slack, or is that a loss to Tucson?

And the Phoenix area has all the Major League teams in the state for this spring. Will there be a boost from that?

Is this week's cold weather having an impact? What about all the cold weather in other parts of the country -- is that chasing people to Arizona?

How important is the winter visitor season for Arizona's restaurants?

Are there pockets of the state doing better or worse than others when it comes to restaurant business?

'WE'RE JUST NOT LOOKING GOOD TO PEOPLE'

posted by Michael Chihak

An Arizona tourist industry rebound from the recession-driven malaise of the last three years may rest with what outsiders think of the state, a prominent Tucson restaurateur suggests.

Arizona's passage of Senate Bill 1070, which many call the nation's strongest law against illegal immigrants, and a subsequent call for a boycott of the state, which U.S. Rep. Raul Grijalva, D-Tucson, endorsed, had a negative effect on the state's image, El Charro Cafe's Carlotta Flores said in an interview today.

"The Grijalva boycott put an arrow through us," Flores said. "SB1070 had the same effect. We're just not looking good to people."

Flores and her family operate El Charro Cafe in downtown Tucson, which at 89 years is the city's oldest continuously operated restaurant. They also run four other Mexican restaurants and related food operations in the Tucson metropolitan area.

She said the poor year that the tourism industry had in 2010 "is lapping over into 2011. We can see it in all that is happening."

She said she hopes the start of the Tucson Gem and Mineral shows last weekend will be a boost for local restaurants and tourism-related businesses, and there are early signs that it is busier this year than last.

At the same time, Flores said, Tucson must absorb the loss of spring training baseball, which some economists estimated made a $30 million contribution to the local economy each year. This is the first year since 1947 that Tucson hasn't had a Major League baseball team for spring training.

"Everything is different now," Flores said. "It used to be the season was five months. But now, you're hoping that February, March and April are good enough to get you through the long, hot summer."

'CAUTIOUSLY OPTIMISTIC' FOR AZ TOURISM REBOUND

posted by Michael Chihak

Arizona's desert tourism season is approaching its peak. The gem shows are under way in Tucson, the Phoenix Open Golf Tournament is this week, and spring training is just around the corner.

Restaurants are jammed, and lots of out-of-state vehicles are populating parking lots all over Phoenix and Tucson as snowbirds flee the cold confines of the East and Midwest for the more favorable climes of the desert.

Sherry Henry, executive director of the Arizona Office of Tourism, says the industry is "cautiously optimistic" that it will be a good season. Certainly, she said, it should exceed last year and perhaps even 2008, which were both down years because of the recession.

The tourism industry employed 172,000 Arizonans at its peak in 2006, state tourism statistics showed. That fell to 157,200 in 2009, the lowest total since the last recession, in 2002. Arizona tourism spending was a record $19.1 billion in 2007, according to figures supplied by the Arizona Office of Tourism from a study done by Dean Runyan Associates. It fell off to $18.5 billion in 2008 and to $16.6 billion in 2009. Figures for 2010 are as yet unavailable.

Henry and other officials from the industry will speak about its prospects on Friday's Arizona Week airing at 8:30 p.m. MST on KUAT-TV. Journalists who cover the industry will offer commentary and analysis on how this important part of the state's economy is doing.

MUNICIPALITIES: 'GETTING BETTER, BUT STILL A STRUGGLE'

posted by Michael Chihak

Representatives of the state's cities and towns are worried about what comes next in the struggle to keep their budgets balanced.

That's after a two-year stretch in which they cut local budgets by an average of 30 percent, including layoffs of hundreds of municipal workers, elimination or consolidation of services and delays in ongoing projects.

"Things are slowly getting better, but it's still a struggle," Ken Strobeck said. He is executive director of the League of Arizona Cities and Towns, which represents all 91 municipalities in the state.

Strobeck and Avondale Mayor Marie Lopez Rogers, who is an officer in the state league and in the National League of Cities, discussed their fiscal issues in an interview in Avondale today.

Rogers said in Avondale, the budget went through the same 30 percent cut that most others saw, and yet there remains a $4 million deficit for the next fiscal year. Other municipalities are in similar straits.

She and Strobeck said they are worried about what will happen if the state does not get a waiver on its Medicaid payments, something that would toss a $542 million budget deficiency back into the laps of the governor and the Legislature.

Gov. Jan Brewer said the waiver request to the federal government this week, and there is no word on when a decision will be made. She and legislative leaders say it is absolutely necessary to balance the state's budget.

But it is not a sure thing, with many states facing similar budget-balancing scenarios and the same mandates from the federal government to provide services such as health care for the poor.

If the state doesn't get the waiver, Strobeck and Rogers said, they fear that everything will be on the table for cutting. That would include $800 million that the state now collects in revenues from income taxes, sales taxes and fees to be passed along to the cities and towns.

The complete interview with Rogers and Strobeck will be posted on this site later this week, and the Arizona Week broadcast of excerpts, plus journalists' commentary and analysis, will be available on the site Friday and on KUAT-TV 6 at 8:30 p.m. MST Friday.