NAVAJO PRESIDENT WORKS JOBS PLAN

posted by Michael Chihak

Navajo Nation President Ben Shelly has a clear and concise understanding of the economic development and workforce issues facing his administration and his people.

In office just seven months, Shelly is rolling out an economic development plan pegged to the Navajos' vast energy resources, including alternative energies such as solar and wind, to the introduction of high technology on the sprawling rural reservation and on trade within and outside the United States.

Shelly detailed the issues and the opportunities for Arizona Week in an interview recently just outside the Navajo Nation's administrative offices in Window Rock.

As he spoke, a Navajo couple stood nearby making and selling native jewelry. The man said he and his wife were pressed into jewelry making because they can't find work on the reservation. He said he is trained as a heavy-equipment operator, his wife as a dialysis technician.

The interview with Shelly and analysis of the economic plight of the Navajos and other Native Americans will be the focus of Friday's Arizona Week.

DEBT CEILING: 'WE DODGED BULLET,' BUT ...

posted by Michael Chihak

A top Arizona economist says the federal debt-ceiling issues that were temporarily settled this week may have contributed to a continuance of the weak economic recovery.

"Bottom line: We dodged a bullet," Jim Rounds said in an e-mail. Rounds is economist and senior vice president at Elliott D. Pollack & Co. in Scottsdale. He tracks Arizona's and the nation's economic indicators to help businesses set their plans and strategies.

"Shocks like the debt-ceiling issue have more of an impact when the economy is weak," Rounds said in his e-mail. "While a resolution was agreed upon, there were still some psychological impacts in the economy. Businesses became a bit more scared to invest and consumers became a bit more scared to spend."

"This may have set us back a good three months to half of a year in the recovery," he continued. "But, the broad array of economic data suggests no 'double dip', just a continued really weak recovery."

On Friday's Arizona Week, we will look at the broader economic implications of the debt-ceiling issue for Arizona, by speaking with a business and entrepreneurial specialist from the Thunderbird School for Global Management in Phoenix and with other economic and financial experts.

QUESTIONS ABOUND IN FED DEBT-CEILING 'SOLUTION'

posted by Michael Chihak

Questions about the effects of the federal action on the deficit and debt ceiling will be posed on Friday's Arizona Week to economists and financial experts in Arizona.

Here's some of what we plan to ask:

• How will spending reductions affect Arizona's economy?

• Will there be an impact on state social services?

• The deal eventually could include defense spending cuts. Could they affect Arizona military installations and defense contractors?

• Will federal spending reductions mean governmental agency layoffs? If so, how will they affect the jo market in Arizona?

• How dependent is Arizona's economy and job market on what happens ast the federal level?

Watch Friday for answers to these questions and more.

3-IN-1 POLITICIAN, WITH ECONOMIC CHOPS

posted by Michael Chihak

In politics, plenty of people have charisma. Plenty of people have intelligence. Plenty of people have good ideas. Unfortunately, those are all different people.

Few in politics possess all those qualities. And even those who do possess them aren’t always able to make them work -- not only for themselves, but for the constituencies they represent.

Lo and behold, the Arizona Public Media TV crew I traveled the state with earlier this month found a politician who seems to be making things happen.

She’s Flagstaff Mayor Sara Presler. Presler is energetic, well spoken, obviously intelligent and in possession of basic economic know-how and an understanding of the public sector’s part in the economy.

Consider just one comment she made in our interview, about the status of Flagstaff’s city budget: “The only reason government does better is because business does better.”

We found out that Flagstaff is all about business -- the business of tourism. And thus Presler is all about the business of tourism. She fully recognizes that business leads, government facilitates and, as she said, does better if business does better.

The proof is that Flagstaff for the last several years of recession, with Presler as mayor, has led Arizona and the Western region in tourism growth. That’s been important in Flagstaff, as Presler pointed out. Half of the city’s sales tax revenues comes from tourism, so tourism deserves fostering.

Flagstaff does just that. During the recession, the city pumped $350,000 over two years into tourism marketing. It worked. The area saw a 3 percent decline in tourism spending over two years, while the rest of the state struggled with double-digit declines.

It was evidence that Presler could pull together business and government, still letting the private sector lead.

Only 31 years old and completing what she says will be her last term as mayor next year, she is someone to watch on Arizona’s political landscape.

FLAGSTAFF LEADS THE STATE, THE REGION, MAYBE THE NATION

posted by Michael Chihak

Flagstaff and the surrounding Coconino County are tops in Arizona for tourism.

That's not to say they bring in more money or provide more jobs than other parts of the state; Phoenix is the big dog there. But northern Arizona business and political leaders leverage their natural advantages to get the most out of it.

An Arizona Office of Tourism report shows that while most of the rest of the state lagged in tourism revenue growth last year, Coconino County set a record, topping even the total it reached in 2007 before the recession took hold.

Total travel spending in Coconino County in 2010 was $948 million, 6.2 percent higher than in 2009 and 3 percent better than the previous record year of 2007.

Meantime, statewide travel spending in 2010 was $17.7 billion, which was 7.3 percent lower than the 2007 record total.

Flagstaff takes its tourism strategy seriously, and it should. Half of the city's sales tax revenues come from tourism spending, Mayor Sara Presler said.

We'll take an in-depth look at northern Arizona's tourism business success on Friday's Arizona Week.

NORTHERN ARIZONA: WHERE TOURISM MATTERS

posted by Michael Chihak

Flagstaff Mayor Sara Presler recognizes the value of travel and tourism to her city's economy -- and to city government -- so she pays a lot of attention to it.

And that attention comes as part of a Northern Arizona regional economic development strategy, Presler said.

"When one of us wins in Northern Arizona, we all win," Presler told Arizona Week in an interview for Friday's program. "There's a multiplier effect in us investing from a regional perspective in economic development rather than being so interested in what's happening in Flagstaff proper."

Indeed, the Arizona Office of Tourism, in its latest report on the tourism economy by Dean Runyan Associates, shows that rural Arizona depends much more than the metro areas on tourism.

The report shows that state sales tax revenues generated by travel spending make up 15 percent of total sales taxes in Arizona's 13 rural and lower population counties. In Maricopa and Pima counties, homes to Phoenix and Tucson, the figure is 10 percent.

In Flagstaff, the city's tourism and convention bureau is located inside City Hall, a clear sign of its importance to the local economy.

"We like to say that half of our sales tax dollars come from tourists," Mayor Presler said. "So the pants of every police officer? They're paid for by a tourist."