GOVERNMENT BUDGETING: OBSTACLE OR OPPORTUNITY?

posted by Michael Chihak

In the pile of state budget trimmings in Arizona this spring were $93 million in cuts and pass-along costs to the counties.

They came despite the counties’ consistent objections, most of which involved pleas that it would be the fourth straight year of cuts in state-controlled funding to the 15 counties.

Now the counties are working to put together their budgets for the 2011-2012 fiscal year, leading to resurrection of what is a predictable and yet mysterious political discussion.

The predictable part of the discussion is conservatives saying government must be smaller, and it’s their job to impose fiscal restraint, and liberals saying that budget cutting alone isn’t a good way to make government smaller, and we should tax the rich more.

The mysterious part of the discussion is why there isn’t yet any serious talk of ways to reform the system from top to bottom – including tax reform and a realistic look at what is and is not needed in government structure and services.

The opportunity for true reform is here, with everything from the job market, the housing industry and even the overall economy in need of reinvention.

Yet adherence to party line ideology on both sides is the obstacle to making headway for reforms that will require everyone to let go a bit of their now entrenched positions in favor of compromise that makes the system better.

That's why in the rhetoric over budgeting, it's disheartening to hear the predictable comments on both sides. That continues the obstacles and problems we have.

A company that employed me for many years had as part of its philosophy and culture that there were no problems, only opportunities.

Is that how our political leaders with their predictable sound bites see current circumstances? Or do they see the opportunities in those circumstances?

AZ COUNTIES LOBBIED HARD, GOT LITTLE FOR IT

posted by Michael Chihak

Arizona counties are grappling with reduced property tax revenues, driven down by lower property values, and other reduced revenues. Now, they are dealing with cuts and pass-along costs from the state.

Initially, the state Senate proposed cutting and passing along $150 million in costs to the counties as one of myriad ways they sought to balance the state budget.

The final budged had cuts and pass alongs to the counties at $93 million, still a formidable amount. That includes $8 million in Pima County and $1.2 million in Navajo County, to name just two.

And the cuts to all 15 counties are on top of such cuts previously and other pass-along costs to come. The future pass-alongs will include counties taking on more responsibility and expense for state prisoners.

How are they dealing with all these issues going forward? We will explore the issues fully on Friday's episode of Arizona Week, 8:30 p.m. MST on PBS-HD-6 in Tucson and 11 p.m. MST on 8-World in Phoenix.

For the program, we will interview David Tenney, president of the County Supervisors Association of Arizona and a Navajo County supervisor, and Andy Kunasek, a Maricopa County supervisor.

AZ COUNTIES WORK TO ABSORB $93M IN STATE CUTS

posted by Michael Chihak

Arizona Week on Friday will look at the fiscal situations with the state's 15 county governments as they work toward their legal deadlines for passing state budgets.

Financial issues abound among the counties.

In Maricopa, the supervisors held budget hearings today and are trying to determine what to do about up to $100 million of misspent money in the Sheriff's Department's jail budget, as detailed in the Arizona Republic.

In Pima County, the supervisors passed a tentative budget last week, including an increase in the sales tax rate, although Democrat Sharon Bronson told Arizona Public Media's Christopher Conover in an interview last week that most homeowners will see smaller tax bills because of reduced property values.

In Pinal County, the supervisors last week cut $2.1 million, including 20 layoffs, as reported in the Casa Grande Dispatch.

Other counties face their own difficulties.

We will interview officials of the associations that help lobby on behalf of Arizona's counties and supervisors from two or more counties, for Friday's Arizona Week.

TRUMP CARD: JOURNALISTIC EXPERTISE

posted by Michael Chihak

The depth and breadth of knowledge among the three journalists on today's Arizona Week panel brought home the realities of the state's culture of political and civic leadership.

Arizona Republic columnist Laurie Roberts, tucsoncitizen.com Editor Mark Evans and Tucson Weekly writer Mari Herreras discussed those realities in understandable terms.

They spelled out that the key reality is that Republicans are in charge and call the shots. Others need not apply -- not Democrats, not Libertarians, not Greens, not independent voters.

Yet, the state's voter registration lists show a much more even division, about one-third Republican, a little less than one-third independent, and a little less than that Democratic. Libertarians and Greens bring up the rear with low single-digit percentages.

The key, Evans and Roberts said, is to switch to an open primary system that allows for nonpartisan elections. The problem, Herreras said, is that it will take state political leadership to bring about such a change. The leaders in control won't do it because it would potentially lead to their losing power.

Leaving the system in place as it is means there's one approach to solving problems -- fiscal, educational, environmental and in all other realms. Little or no odds for compromise or bipartisan solutions.

Audacious leadership training programs such as the Flinn-Brown Civic Leadership Academy featured on the program thus are fairly limited in what they can do to drive improvement in many of the state's key issues, the journalists concluded.

That's why we continue to ask for Arizona's best and brightest journalists to be on Arizona Week.

DUAL AND DUELING INTERVIEWS FOR FRIDAY'S PROGRAM

posted by Michael Chihak

Arizona Week explores civic leadership in the state for Friday's program, looking at a new initiative kicked off this spring in Phoenix.

The Flinn-Brown Leadership Academy held its first class with 25 people from around the state wanting to improve their skills and get up to speed on a wide range of state political and civic issues. The group completes the program Friday, and its founders and two members of the class sat for interviews today in Phoenix.

That's where the complexity comes in. Normally, our on-location interviews are one-on-one -- me speaking with one person. In this instance, we had two interviews back to back, and both were one-on-two -- me speaking with two people at a time.

Steve Riggs, Bob Lindberg and Dominick de Leon were undaunted in their setup and approach to the shoot, accommodating my request to do it this way without pause.

First interview was with Jack Jewett, president and CEO of the Flinn Foundation and founder of the leadership academy, and Nancy Welch, vice president at Flinn overseeing the Arizona Center for Civic Leadership.

Second interview was with Flinn-Brown Academy Fellows Lisa Urias, of Urias Communications in Scottsdale, and Paul Brierley, director of organization for the Arizona Farm Bureau in Gilbert.

LEADERSHIP: TRANSCENDING POLITICAL INTRANSIGENCE

posted by Michael Chihak

Are good leaders made or born?

In Arizona, if it’s the former, there’s now a way they can be made. If it’s the latter, that same way purports to make them better.

It’s called the Arizona Center for Civic Leadership. Its centerpiece program, a civic leadership academy, holds its first graduation on Friday, when it will turn two dozen Arizonans back to their communities with fresh perspective on the state’s top political and civic issues.

They also take with them what they learned from public policy experts and others -- the traits and tools of leadership.

Participants spent ten two-day sessions together in Phoenix, hearing from experts on the state’s fiscal system and budget, the economy, education, water, immigration and border issues and a half-dozen other key topics.

It was all focused on fulfilling the leadership center’s mission to ensure that Arizona’s future leaders “have the commitment, knowledge and skills to work together to carry out creative, long-term solutions to pressing problems."

The key phrase in that statement may well be “to work together.” For in this day of political divisiveness when politicians don’t bother even paying lip service to the notion of bipartisanship, getting people to work together on the issues will clearly be the heaviest lift.

Graduates of the academy were admitted on, among other things, the condition that they step up and seek a position of leadership in the community, in civic and/or political life.

The key measure of the program's success could well be how well its graduates do at bringing together disparate political and civic factions for focus on Arizona's crucial issues.