The recent spate of wacky bills debated in the Arizona Legislature is further proof of the schism between the few pragmatic politicians who serve this state and the out-of-touch sponsors and supporters of these pieces of legislation.
Just look at the bills — thousands of people are soon to be without health care. Education funding is dwindling by the day.
Nonetheless, according to Arizona Senate President Russell Pearce and his colleagues, it is more imperative to pass a bill that would make way for a new state license plate. What’s more, some of the money generated for the license plates would find its way into the hands of a committee whose five members all have ties to the Tea Party.
Additionally, because Arizonans surely cannot go on another day without their state supporting the Wisconsin governor’s actions against labor unions in that state, the Senate took up a resolution to do just that.
As someone familiar with these misguided priorities, longtime Arizona pollster Bruce Merrill told the East Valley Tribune, “I give probably 20 interviews a week to media outside of Arizona and even outside of the country, and almost always all of them start out with, ‘What the hell is going on in that nutty state?’”
Moreover, Merrill asked, “Why would a business go to Arizona, where you have this incredible political instability? Businesses need stability.”
All hope is not lost, however. To prove to the rest of the country that Arizona has sound priorities, there are several measures that can be taken immediately.
First, Pearce’s decision to put immigration bills on hold until a budget is passed should be extended indefinitely so each measure can be more carefully examined (or wisely dropped).
For instance, Senate Bill 1161 would mandate that hospitals check immigration status and would disallow illegal immigrants from driving cars or enrolling in schools.
As the Senate president well knows, these stipulations are impossible to enforce and would create a permanent underclass in Arizona.
So, why push the proposal forward at all?
Second, one only has to look at the license plate initiative to understand that appeasing the Tea Party base is at the forefront of many senators’ minds. This comes at a time when what’s clearly most vital to ASU students and the education community at large is the decrease in financial support from the state coupled with rising tuition costs.
Sen. Linda Lopez, D-Tucson, told the Tribune that the state has slashed education funding by $1.2 billion since 2008. With shortfall of more than $1 billion this year, according to The Arizona Republic, cuts are a fact of life. And this development comes at a time when President Barack Obama is trumpeting to the country that we must invest in education in order to “win the future.”
Continuing to strip the resources out of higher education will effectively remove Arizona from remaining competitive with other states that commit more whole-heartedly to education in attracting top talent to their universities.
Wait, I almost forgot to mention the move to declare a new state firearm. Well, at least the Senate waited a few months after the Tucson tragedy.
Contact Zach at zlevinep@asu.edu
