Ashley Kornacki, 11, plays a game of rollerball during an afterschool program at the Joan M. Swetland Community Center, at Sahaurita Park. Pima County is facing budget cuts and may have to close or transfer this community center to the Sahuarita School District.

It may look like mere play to grown-ups, but recreation for Tucson’s youth is a lot more than fun and games.

Whether shooting hoops or swimming laps, kids who participate in sports and other recreation are more likely to stay healthy and fit – and they’re a lot less likely to engage in juvenile crime.

The more free and inexpensive after-school and summer recreation programs for kids there are, the healthier and safer our communities will be.

So we commend the Pima County Board of Supervisors for voting Tuesday to undo its earlier decisions to impose fees on after-school and summer programs and to close some community centers and parks.

Yes, we know times are hard, and we know that the county’s costs for Parks & Recreation have risen considerably.

The supervisors have a budget to balance, and that’s not an easy task to undertake in these trying times.

Nonetheless, any move to raise fees and reduce recreation access should be undertaken gradually and judiciously.

That’s how the county is responding as of this week.

Letters of protest poured in from parents and youth program leaders when the county proposed $195 per semester fees for the Get Active! Afternoons after-school programs and $270 for an eight-week Stay Active! Summers program.

We’re glad the programs will continue free of charge, at least for now.

In addition, the commissioners did the right thing by delaying field fee increases for athletic organizations until February 2010, giving Little League and other groups the opportunity to plan and budget for the higher costs.

Some fee increases and recreation reductions appear to be inevitable, given the county’s 50 percent increase in Parks & Recreation costs over the past five years.

The department budget was $15.6 million in 2008-09 compared with just $10.4 million in 2003-04 – and fees have not increased during that time.

But we urge the supervisors to raise fees fairly, by providing advance notice and special deals for low-income families as well as those with multiple children.

Ultimately, healthy communities will encourage recreation, treating it as a line-item to be subsidized rather than as a profit-making endeavor.

Of course the county must break even. But when kids have healthy outlets, our society ultimately saves a lot of heartache and money otherwise spent on crime-fighting, incarceration and rehabilitation.

We encourage county leaders to do all they can to keep youth recreation as free from fees as possible. It’s far more than child’s play.

As Rio Nuevo fights to maintain its state funding, it also is waging an internal battle to decide what it wants to be.

When the Rio Nuevo District was approved by voters a decade ago, it promised historic and cultural features on the west side of Interstate 10.

But the museums and re-created historical structures have been placed on hold. Instead, the limited money is being used first to improve the Tucson Convention Center and to build a 25-story convention hotel.

There is a good reason for the change in emphasis. Building the hotel first will increase the revenue base in the Rio Nuevo District.

That means additional money in future years for the cultural and historic features that are essential but won’t bring in as much revenue.

The Legislature has seized on this thinking and proposed that the state mandate that tax-increment financing money be used only for TCC and the hotel.

That is a decision that should be made locally – by members of the Rio Nuevo board. The state shouldn’t be in the business of micromanaging local development moves.

But the group Friends of Tucson’s Birthplace is campaigning to ensure that the cultural and historic features not be delayed indefinitely.

The Rio Nuevo board should publicly commit to building them as soon as fiscally possible.

These are difficult times for Rio Nuevo, with the downtown redevelopment program fighting to prevent a state death sentence as it struggles to define its own mission.

Rio Nuevo and downtown Tucson will survive and will thrive. But the Legislature must let it live long enough to prove that it can be viable when the economy recovers.

With state lawmakers hunting for every available dime, the operations of Rio Nuevo have come under close scrutiny.

The major funding source for the project is tax increment financing, under which a portion of new sales tax revenue generated in a specific area is returned to the city instead of going to the state.

The city of Tucson has made Rio Nuevo an attractive target, with an underwhelming list of projects to show for the millions of dollars that have been spent. So legislators are trying a variety of strangulation tactics to reduce or eliminate the project’s state funding.

And while some reforms are needed, the Legislature must let Rio Nuevo receive its promised funding.

Reducing or eliminating funding would make it impossible for the district to repay bonds that have been sold to renovate the Tucson Convention Center and build a new downtown hotel. A state move to cut off that funding after it has been encumbered likely would be illegal.

But there also is the matter of equity. Maricopa County used a similar funding strategy to build stadiums for professional sports: football in Glendale and baseball in Phoenix. And roads to a Phoenix-area racetrack were improved in the same way.

Tucson won its “right” to TIF money in a deal that also included the Phoenix projects. It would be grossly unfair of the Maricopa County-dominated Legislature to now renege on Pima County projects.

To their substantial credit, Tucson-area legislators of both parties have banded together to save Rio Nuevo funding. They must remain steadfast and not back down as legislative negotiations continue.

Tucson deserves the chance in a recovering economy to show that downtown can be reborn and be a true asset to southern Arizona and to the entire state.

With the economy in the dumps, many people are looking for ways to earn extra money. But be wary of schemes that will empty your pocketbook.

Arizona Attorney General Terry Goddard said complaints about business opportunity scams increased 300 percent since early 2008.

Most of the complaints involved Internet-based “opportunities.” Such schemes require consumers to pay an initial fee – often $500 to $1,000 – with the promise that they will make extra income. When that doesn’t happen, the promoter tries to sell expensive advertising or marketing tools.

Before investing money, make sure the opportunity is genuine and can be validated through a source such as the Better Business Bureau.

And if you do get taken, contact the Attorney General’s Office in Tucson at 628-6504. Don’t let connivers take advantage of others.

In its rush to cut spending, the Legislature is ignoring a voter mandate requiring funding for education to be increased annually.

This is far more than a legal technicality. This is a requirement imposed by voters. And under the state constitution, it is something neither the Legislature nor anyone else can ignore.

A brief history lesson is helpful: In 2000, Arizona voters approved Proposition 301. The initiative increased the state sales tax by 0.6 cent per dollar with the money going to all levels of education.

But voters also mandated in Prop. 301 that the Legislature could not reduce education funding to offset the new revenue. The measure required that state funding to schools be increased by the rate of inflation or by 2 percent annually, whichever is lower.

For fiscal 2010, which begins July 1, the required increase in state funding for education is 2 percent. But legislators are ignoring that and planning aggressive cuts to balance a budget that is $3 billion in the red.

Should the Legislature continue to ignore the mandate, the Arizona School Boards Association says it is prepared to challenge the budget in court.

In a letter to legislative leaders, Panfilo Contreras, executive director of the association, noted that a court decision as well as an opinion by the Arizona attorney general both concluded across-the-board spending increases for education are mandated by Prop. 301.

And under Arizona’s Voter Protection Act, the Legislature is not allowed to tinker with voter-approved measures – unless it furthers the intent of the measure. Clearly that is not what the Legislature is doing when it cuts funding that voters said must be increased annually.

The School Boards Association has retained an attorney to file suit against the Legislature and Gov. Jan Brewer if a budget is passed and signed that cuts education.

But to its credit, the association said it recognizes the state is going through extraordinary financial times. It is prepared to accept some funding reductions as long as legislators make the required increases and then cut them.

Yes, these are difficult times for state budget-writers. But as Contreras wrote in his letter to legislators, “We can’t return to the days of moving backwards and tough times are no excuse to set aside these legal and fiscal obligations.”

Arizona already spends less on schools than almost every other state does. The voters of this state have emphatically said that must change – and they have backed it up with an ironclad ballot initiative.

It shouldn’t take a court case to ensure that the Legislature does the right thing. But if that is needed, bring it on.

A crane works on the underground Depot Plaza garage downtown.

A parking garage isn’t an icon of culture and beauty, but the structure under way downtown is emblematic of much more.

When the underground Depot Plaza garage is completed behind north of One North Fifth apartments, it will mark the first major accomplishment in the Rio Nuevo downtown rehabilitation program.

Soon, that $13.5 million, 283-space subterranean parking spot is expected to be completed.

Then work can commence on a six-story public housing tower above to provide 68 units for low-income elderly and for disabled residents.

Tucson long has waited for visible signs of progress with Rio Nuevo, and setbacks and inadequate leadership have resulted in repeated delays.

Now concrete evidence of progress is here, giving us something to celebrate – even if it is merely a parking garage.

Robert Nickla prepares clinical samples submitted for Influenza testing at the Arizona State Laboratory in Phoenix.

Pima County’s response to six confirmed cases of swine flu has been most sensible, especially compared with reactions elsewhere.

Hundreds of people were being held in a Hong Kong hotel because one man had swine flu, for example, and China quarantined more than 70 travelers simply because they’re from Mexico.

By contrast, in the Tucson area, public schools remain open despite two student cases of confirmed swine flu.

One child who contracted the flu was expected to return to Tortolita Middle School on Monday.

That school – like all others in Marana Unified School District – remained open.

Another student with the flu is from Safford Magnet Middle School; it and all other schools in Tucson Unified School District also are staying open.

Both of the students and the other four people confirmed to have had swine flu here have recovered.

With the school year almost over, and many students taking final exams now, keeping schools open was a logical response by area school districts.

It also was in keeping with U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention guidelines, as the CDC isn’t recommending school closures.

The four other swine flu cases in Pima County were confirmed on the Tohono O’odham Nation, authorities said, involving a 3-year-old, two youths of high school age and one adult about 20 years old

The Pima County Health Department now has begun “active surveillance.”

Health officials are checking to see whether other schoolchildren and tribal members contract the disease while also trying to determine who the victims were associating with and checking the health history of their families and friends.

As of Sunday night, the number of swine flu cases confirmed in the U.S. totaled 245 in 35 states.

Only one flu victim is known to have died in this country – a Mexican toddler who was visiting Texas.

Pima County, despite its proximity to the border, has been relatively fortunate to date, and we hope that good luck will continue.

We also are grateful that cool heads have prevailed here, despite hysteria erupting in other quarters. We hope the sensible approach will continue, even if more local cases of swine flu are confirmed.

The swine flu – also known as H1N1 – is, after all, a form of influenza. Regular forms of flu and its complications kill about 36,000 people each year in the U.S. So the outbreak of swine flu is no reason to panic.

Wash your hands frequently, cover your sneezes and practice healthy habits. But like local health and school officials, let’s also keep calm.

The Legislature’s draft spending proposal slashes education; health care for poor and disabled Arizonans; child protection; and other services to balance the budget without obvious tax increases or borrowing.

It’s a perfect illustration of how the majority of our legislators try to cling to conservative ideology – i.e., no new taxes – while ignoring the many consequences, from human suffering to setting our economy even further back than it has fallen.

Evidently this ill-conceived budget is the best they can produce after nearly four months in session. Given that failure of leadership, where is Gov. Jan Brewer?

Brewer vowed months ago to push for a new tax via a special election to raise $3 billion. Yet she still hasn’t said what type or size tax she would like to pursue or how the new revenue would be spent from her “five-point tax hike plan.”

Brewer also promised to provide her own detailed budget proposal, but she hasn’t done so even as Arizona struggles through its worst budget crisis in history.

Meanwhile, Republican budget negotiators are playing a veritable shell game with our money while feigning protection of taxpayers.

They want to sweep more than $300 million in savings accounts from school districts, for example, even though much of that money typically is used to cut local property taxes.

They also want to strip about $265 million from cities and counties, a move that likely would force some local governments to pursue new taxes to cover the shortfall.

Yet at the same time, legislators have waived $240 million in outstanding taxes due from corporations, and have terminated 300 employees from the Department of Revenue – staffers whose absence will cost the state $174 million in lost collections, Brewer advisers say.

Legislators and Brewer are ducking responsibility when Arizona needs them most.

Now an even more bleak picture is emerging, as April tax figures show a revenue shortfall of as much as $300 million will materialize by June. That’s on top of the $487 million shortfall already documented.

So how will Republican budget gurus cope with that? By cutting more services for vulnerable Arizonans, we’d wager.

Now more than ever, Arizona needs its governor to exercise some leadership. Brewer has failed to do so, but she still can step up.

We urge her to show some strength before our schools fall apart, hospitals overflow and local governments suffer. Governor, Arizonans are counting on you.

After almost a year with an acting police chief, the Tucson Police Department finally has a new leader.

Friday, City Manager Mike Letcher chose Assistant Chief Roberto Villaseñor to be chief. The selection is subject to confirmation by the City Council, which is expected next week.

The other finalist for the position was Assistant Chief John Leavitt. Letcher couldn’t go wrong regardless of which man he picked.

Richard Miranda retired as chief in June 2008 and now is assistant city manager. He was replaced by Kermit Miller, who has been acting chief and plans to retire this month.

It appeared the search was almost over last month when the field was narrowed to four finalists – Leavitt and another TPD commander as well as two out-of-state candidates. But the results were tossed out and the search restarted with only local candidates.

Congratulations to Villaseñor. We look forward to a lengthy tenure.

Gov. Jan Brewer eased next year’s hit on the pocketbooks of university students – but her high-handed demand for an overhaul of the higher education system leaves a lot to be desired.

The state Board of Regents decided this week that university students will have to pay more – much more – in tuition next year. But the boost was less than it could have been because of unilateral action by Brewer.

In-state undergraduates at the University of Arizona will pay a $766 tuition surcharge this fall – on top of a $545 increase in tuition and fees. That $1,311 one-year increase is the largest in state history.

But it could have been worse. The surcharge was cut by 30 percent after Brewer said she would allocate $280 million in federal stimulus money to the universities.

While that did provide immediate aid, it delayed the inevitable. Some 40 percent of the stimulus money can be spent in fiscal 2010 and the remaining 60 percent in fiscal 2011. When that one-time infusion is spent, the universities will be back in a deep financial hole.

“We have deferred the harder decision,” said Regent Fred DuVal.

And while Brewer’s decision to allocate more stimulus money to the universities was helpful, the same cannot be said for her demand that the regents revamp the university system to create more affordable options for students who do not need to attend a research-intensive school.

Brewer made her demand in the 20 minutes she swept in and out of the regents’ meeting Thursday. She is an ex officio member of the board but had not previously attended a meeting in her three months as governor.

The regents, and the presidents of all three state universities, are and have been looking at more affordable ways to educate students – including more online classes and working with community colleges to offer the first two years of classes to reduce the cost of a four-year degree.

But Brewer told the regents, “By this fall, I want a new business model that is accountable, predictable and affordable to taxpayers, parents and students.”

Well, that’s fine, but Brewer needs to do more than throw up a utopian dream and demand that it become reality in a few months.

And if she wants higher education that is affordable to students – which is required in the Arizona Constitution – she needs to take the lead in persuading the Legislature to stop slashing state support for the universities.

Yes, Gov. Brewer, a university education in Arizona is too expensive. But don’t just issue fiats, then walk away. Get down and do the work necessary to make change happen.

A Tuesday editorial lamented the resignation of Leesa Berens Morrison, director of the Arizona Department of Homeland Security, just as the swine flu crisis arose.

Morrison said she will remain director until she and the Governor’s Office decide on a mutually agreeable last day. Morrison said she hopes to stay until her replacement is selected to ensure a smooth transition.

Closing a street for construction work can be a crushing financial blow for businesses there.

But the city of Tucson and a contractor working downtown have shown that cooperation pays off.

Scott Avenue south of East Broadway has been closed for several months to narrow the street and widen the sidewalks. Foliage, benches and better lighting were among the pedestrian-friendly amenities added.

Businesses along Scott, including the Arizona Theatre Co. and the Royal Elizabeth Bed & Breakfast Inn, have survived the work with minimal disruption because of a good working relationship with the city and employees from Archer Western Contractors.

That’s encouraging. And it should be a model for future downtown work.

As the city of Tucson examines a plethora of new revenue sources in a struggle to balance its budget, Pima County is on much more sound financial footing.

Part of it is because the county relies on a different revenue source than the city. But it also is due to solid financial planning and management by County Administrator Chuck Huckelberry, members of his staff and other county administrators.

When the economy turned sour, Huckelberry ordered across-the-board spending cuts of 7 percent to 10 percent. The Sheriff’s Department was exempt. That early move means the county will be able to cut the property tax rate while still ending the year with a surplus of about $24.5 million.

Compare that with the city. Then-City Manager Mike Hein proposed cuts, but the City Council dithered and took no action – until it decided to fire Hein. Now the city is hunting for new revenue and faces a deficit.

A large part of the city’s problem is its reliance on sales tax revenue. The county relies on property taxes, where revenue lags a year or two behind the economic downturn.

Nonetheless, problems loom for the county. The most significant is the uncertain future and unknown costs of operating University Physicians Healthcare Hospital at Kino Campus.

There is no inexpensive way to provide health care to the county’s indigent population. In past years, the county operated Kino, and it was a financial debacle.

University Physicians Inc., which employs doctors who work in the University of Arizona College of Medicine, took over operation of the hospital in 2004. The group has a 20-year contract to run the hospital but can back out at any time.

In the past five years, the hospital’s losses have been deeper than forecast, largely because every year the hospital provides about $12 million in care to uninsured people.

County Supervisor Ann Day has called for an independent audit of University Physicians’ books – a reasonable request. The county must ensure it is paying the fair costs of running the hospital but not unrelated costs of training UA medical students who work at the hospital.

Nonetheless, in this miserable economy, Pima County is doing a laudable job of providing essential public services within the confines of its budget.

<strong>Clarissa Bettini</strong> (center) holds up a sign protesting a rental tax during a public hearing before the City Council Tuesday evening at the Tucson Convention Center. More than 600 people were in the meeting room and another 400 people were outside the meeting room.

We trust the Tucson City Council heard the message loud and clear Tuesday night, as hundreds of citizens poured out to protest a proposed rent tax.

Our elected officials face a challenge in drafting a budget with a serious shortfall of revenue.

But they must seriously consider the burden that extra taxes impose on low-income residents during this dire recession.

With unemployment at extremely high levels, state social services being slashed and no relief in sight, the prospect of a new rent tax did not sit well with Tucson voters – and understandably so.

City officials now should head straight back to the drawing board to search for other ways to raise revenues or, better yet, cut costs.

The people have spoken – loudly. Now the City Council needs to acknowledge that it got the message.

Pima Conty Sheriff Clarence Dupnik

To our chagrin, normally levelheaded Pima County Sheriff Clarence Dupnik has floated a cockeyed idea tainted with stereotypes.

The sheriff suggested that illegal immigration could be deterred and the border secured if schools were required to check citizenship status when students enroll.

At one point, he even suggested Arizona should challenge a 1982 U.S. Supreme Court ruling that bars such status checks at schools. But he later said he wouldn’t push for a challenge.

Dupnik’s idea is pure poppycock.

Even if the Supreme Court hadn’t already ruled on this issue, the idea that schoolchildren cause our broken immigration policies is ludicrous.

The federal government has failed repeatedly to reform our dysfunctional system, and that festering failure is the reason our nation cannot control immigration.

The idea that overburdened school personnel should suddenly be responsible for righting this wrong is preposterous.

Anyone who thinks barring immigrant children from our schools would solve our border problems isn’t thinking clearly.

Dupnik deeply disappoints us, too, with his stereotypical comments about the children of illegal immigrants; the South, Southwest and West sides of Tucson; and the Sunnyside School District.

He said social problems in those neighborhoods – failing schools, high dropout rates and gang affiliation – are caused by illegal immigration.

That is a spurious claim.

High dropout rates have plagued the entire state of Arizona, and many children of illegal immigrants have excelled academically and qualified for full university scholarships.

Failing schools have been identified throughout southern Arizona and the rest of the state, not just in some Tucson neighborhoods.

As for gang affiliation, any cursory check of upscale neighborhoods reveals gang graffiti and crime.

Indeed, all Tucson neighborhoods – including the ritziest – have “social problems,” as Dupnik puts it.

And U.S. citizens had plenty of those problems long before illegal immigration became a major trend.

Equally ridiculous is Dupnik’s contention that 4 in 10 Sunnyside students are here illegally.

By law, Sunnyside cannot make that determination. For our sheriff to spread such rumor and speculation is troubling, to say the least.

Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio and his reliance on racial profiling are an embarrassment for Arizona. Dupnik, by contrast, long has been regarded as the voice of reason.

He should apologize to those he has besmirched and refrain from such incendiary comments. He is supposed to uphold the law, not second-guess it.