It’s about this time every year that I’m documenting the silly laws coming out of Phoenix. This year, our loony Legislature has left me bereft of material.

God bless them!

Before the session started, Senate President Bob Burns, R-Peoria, announced a moratorium on hearing any bills until the budget is passed. Despite grumbling from the rank and file, Burns has held his ground on the issue. No budget, no bills.

Burns announced Monday that Republican legislative leaders have agreed on a tentative budget. But I’m putting my money on legislators debating it for days or even weeks, with the moratorium on other bills remaining mercifully in effect.

Earlier this month, Matthew Benson of the Arizona Republic reported that there “is a logjam of more than 1,000 bills, policy proposals and ballot measures awaiting consideration by the House, Senate or both.”

Let me just say, if our Legislature adjourns this year without passing any bill into the law other than those related to the budget, I would be perfectly content.

Regular readers won’t be surprised to hear that I’m scared to death at what this Republican-dominated legislature might be able to get signed by our new Republican governor as regards the expansion of gun rights and the restriction of reproductive rights.

But even setting aside those issues, much of what passes out of our Legislature is plain dumb. Let’s just consider one doozy awaiting action.

Rep. Andy Biggs, R-Gilbert, is pushing a bill to allow Arizonans to legally purchase sparklers and fountain fireworks, both of which pose a risk of injury to the user and create a risk of sparking wildland fires.

Firefighters and others who don’t think it’s a good idea to play with fire oppose the measure, while Biggs has called his bill “a poke in they eye of those who have the nanny-state mentality.”

I call it a poke in the eye to those with common sense. Former Govs. Fife Symington and Jane Hull, both Republicans, vetoed similar bills during their time in office. At the time, Hull said she didn’t want to send the false message that fireworks are safe.

Some 9,000 people are treated each year in emergency departments for fireworks-related injuries. Sparklers account for up to one-third of the injuries to children under 5.

I don’t want to be unfair. Occasionally, a good piece of legislation is introduced and/or sneaks out of the Legislature.

Last year, Tucson lawmaker Jonathan Paton, a Republican, combined forces with Kirk Adams of Mesa to push through some significant reform of Child Protective Services.

The ongoing effort by Rep. Steve Farley, D-Tucson, to ban texting while driving, if it ever succeeds, would go a long way toward improving public safety on our roads.

And who could argue against a bill introduced this session by Paton and Rep. Nancy Young Wright, D-Tucson, to end a sick new trend of pitting dogs against hogs in staged fights?

But as often as not, our legislators do more harm than good.

One of the most infamous episodes of the last decade was a state law passed in 2000 giving scandalously huge tax credits to people who bought alternative-fuel vehicles. The loophole was the vehicles had to be capable of burning alterative fuels but also could run on gasoline. Many Arizonans used the credit to buy big trucks and luxury sport utility vehicles, getting up to half of the price of the vehicle back from the state.

The Legislature’s estimated cost of $10 million skyrocketed to a projected $680 million before lawmakers pulled the plug on the deal. The credit ended up costing the state about $140 million.

Think about it, folks. No new laws this session could save Arizona lives and money.

Anne T. Denogean can be reached at adenogean@tucsoncitizen.com and 573-4582. Address letters to P.O. Box 26767, Tucson, AZ 85726-6767. Her columns run Tuesdays and Fridays.

This was my absolute favorite sign from Wednesday’s Tucson Tea Party tax protest at El Presidio Park:

“Taxes are revolting and so are we.”

OK. I had to get that out of the way. The event, one of more than 700 anti-tax rallies held around the country, was well-organized and well-attended, with an estimated 3,000 Tucsonans showing up to oppose excessive government spending.

As such, I wanted to take the protesters seriously. But they all sang the same one-note – no, make that two-note – song: Taxes are bad and Obama is destroying America.

As to the second note, where were these folks for the last eight years as George W. Bush systematically destroyed America? If Obama fails, it will be because the damage of the Bush years will have proved too great to undo.

As to the primary note of the song, I couldn’t help, as I walked around Presidio Park, but to think about how each and every person in attendance benefits from government spending.

It’s not that I love paying taxes or that I don’t think that government is often wasteful. But, overall, our collective tax dollars are used to do some pretty amazing things.

Among other things, tax dollars are used to educate our children, to keep the public safe by putting police on the streets and keeping the bad guys they catch in prison, to pave the streets we drive on and to provide financial security for the elderly.

Many of those in attendance Wednesday were senior citizens. I doubt that any of them would forsake their Social Security and Medicare benefits or categorize those benefits as “wasteful government spending.”

I also saw parents with young children, at least some of whom are or will enroll in public schools paid for by taxes.

Star Elliott, 35, attended the event with her adorable young son Cash. She’s worried that he’s growing up in a country that is losing its values. She worries that excessive government spending is creating debt that his generation will have to pay off.

“My son already owes $35,000 and he’s 6-and-a-half months old,” she said because of government spending.

I asked if she plans on sending her son to public schools.

“We can’t afford private school. We live payday to payday,” Elliott said, adding, “Our public schools aren’t very promising.”

Fair enough. But I’d argue that’s exactly why taxpayers should be increasing the investment in public schools, rather than complaining about taxes. Quality doesn’t come cheap.

After Elliott and I said our goodbyes, I came across a little girl with a funny sign.

“Where’s my free pony?” it asked in big print. In smaller print, it added, “and laptop, lunch and healthcare.”

Her mother, as it turned out, is a public educator who doesn’t think our taxes should be paying for breakfast, lunch, basic medical care or laptops for schoolkids.

My conversation with the mother was pleasant, but our positions at polar extremes.

See, I don’t like the idea of an impoverished child sitting in class with an empty, grumbling belly. And I’m OK with my tax dollars being used to feed that kid if his parents can’t.

As far as computers for school kids, if we want kids to compete in a global economy, making sure they have laptops is as essential as providing them with papers and pencils.

Another thing I noticed at the protest was a sprinkling here and there of “Thank a cop” bumper stickers.

Hmm. How do these anti-tax advocates plan on showing their appreciation to our heroes in blue? With flowers and a smile?

City of Tucson police didn’t get a raise this year. If you want to “thank a cop” with a raise in fiscal 2010, it’s likely that the city will need more tax revenue.

Before I left the protest, I approached Beverly Hyatt, 52, who had a sign identifying her as “One Pissed Off Voter.”

What are you pissed off about? I asked.

“Where do I begin?” she said.

Socialism. The bailout. The stimulus plan. Taxation. Restrictions on the Second Amendment. Restrictions on freedom of speech.

Wait a minute. Has Obama proposed some new gun restrictions that I’m unaware of?

“Not yet,” Hyatt said.

Has he moved to restrict your freedom of speech?

“Not yet,” she said.

Has the administration imposed new taxes?

“Not yet, but they will.”

Back in the real world, Obama’s stimulus plan created a “Making Work Pay” tax credit of $400 for individuals and $800 for families making less than $250,000 a year.

I don’t know about the rest of you, but I’ve seen the difference in each of my last two paychecks.

Fox Network and conservative commentators, who combined to aggressively promote the “grass-roots” tea party protests, would have you believe the rallies are the start of a revolution or an indication of widespread discontent with the Obama administration, despite polls that say otherwise.

The protests around the country proved only that there are some ticked-off voters from the losing side, as there are after every election.

Maybe they should just settle in on the couch with a nice cup of chamomile tea and calm down.

Anne T. Denogean can be reached at adenogean@tucsoncitizen.com and 573-4582. Address letters to P.O. Box 26767, Tucson, AZ 85726-6767. Her columns run Tuesdays and Fridays.

Kris and Joe Jacober have fostered 11 children over the past eight years and are awaiting their next placement.

“We have met the most wonderful children,” said Kris Jacober, president of the Arizona Association for Foster & Adoptive Parents. “Really, it has been our honor to meet those kids and to be able to work with them, care for them when they most needed it and to hopefully send them on to a better life.”

The reward for being a foster parent is priceless. But taking on the responsibility isn’t cheap.

The association Jacober leads recently conducted a survey of nearly 600 foster parents to measure the impact of state budget cuts.

Fourteen percent of those surveyed said they may not be able to continue to provide foster care because of the 20 percent reduction in the daily reimbursement rate for foster care and other cuts in foster care allowances.

“I have said before that foster parents don’t do this for the money but it is difficult to do without the money. Now, it’s more difficult,” Jacober said.

Earlier this year, faced with a $1.6 billion shortfall for fiscal 2009, the governor and Legislature cut the Department of Economic Security’s budget by nearly $102 million. DES, when it added in another $51 million in unfunded caseload growth, was looking at a budget deficit of $153 million.

The cuts DES made in response touched virtually every population it serves, including the vulnerable children served by the foster care system and Child Protective Services.

As of March 1, foster care reimbursement rates for the nearly 4,700 children in family foster care were reduced by 20 percent.

The foster care camp and vacation allowance, which earlier had been reduced from $550 to $250 per child, was eliminated.

The emergency clothing allowance was cut in half, from $300 per year to $150 per year.

The emergency clothing extra allowance, provided in cases of fire, flood or theft, was cut from $200 per year to $100.

The allowance for books and other educational expenses was sliced from $165 to $82.50 per year.

The special needs allowance – for holidays, birthdays and special occasions – was cut from $45 to $22.50 a year.

And the diaper allowance, for children older than 2 with a medical need for diapers, was cut from $125 maximum per month to $62.50.

Jacober said foster families had to dip into their own budgets to provide adequate care even before the budget cuts.

“You can’t clothe a child for $150 a year,” she said.

“Every child who has come to my home has come only with the clothes on their back.That’s it. So, in the first three hours, we spend $150 to get them pajamas and a toothbrush and shoes and socks and underwear, just all that basic stuff,” she said.

DES spokeswoman Liz Barker Alvarez said the magnitude of the state funding cut to DES for 2009 left it with no good options.

The Legislature continues to negotiate the 2010 budget, which could include additional cuts for DES. Even a reduction of 5 percent would have a significant impact, Barker Alvarez said.

“Some of the reductions made this year – such as the 20 percent reduction in the foster family reimbursement rate – that we thought would be temporary until the end of this fiscal year, would instead become permanent,” she said.

Jacober said she understands the state is wrestling with huge deficits – $3 billion for 2010. But cutting funding for children should be the last resort, she said.

“In my opinion, this would be the last place you would go to cut because these are vulnerable children. They have no voice. They have no say. And they are in a situation that they didn’t create,” she said.

Jacober’s association is making three requests of the governor, legislators and DES.

One, it asks for the restoration of funds to CPS to investigate 100 percent of reports to the child abuse hot line, something that DES said would not be possible with the budget cuts.

Two, it asks for the restoration of the foster care daily reimbursement rate to what it was before March.

And, three, it asks that all foster care allowance payments be allocated as one lump fund to be used as the discretion of foster parents.

The state has trouble finding and retaining foster families because “it’s just difficult work,” Jacober said.

“And if you aren’t finding the support and the resources you need to do that work, it’s even more difficult.”

Anne T. Denogean can be reached at adenogean@tucsoncitizen.com and 573-4582. Address letters to P.O. Box 26767, Tucson, AZ 85726-6767. Her columns run Tuesdays and Fridays.

Burns

Not that I gave it much thought before, but I never realized until the economic crisis that the idea of “government as a safety net” was a controversial notion.

See, I naively thought that everybody agreed – even those who rail against big government – that times like the ones we’re experiencing now are precisely when government must step in to help its most vulnerable citizens. I thought it was accepted that such times are when government plays its most vital role and does its best work.

I guess that’s why I’ve had difficulty understanding the seeming indifference of Republicans in our state Legislature to the effect of the budget cuts they’re making. I don’t get their stubborn refusal to consider a temporary tax increase – or to even refer the matter to the voters – to preserve basic education, health care and social services.

But things became a little clearer to me earlier this month upon reading a commentary written by Sen. Jack Harper, R-Surprise, for the March 6 issue of the Arizona Capitol Times.

He outlined the reality of the budget crisis – the state has a $3 billion deficit for fiscal 2010. Fair enough. But there were no words of reassurance that government would help those citizens who find themselves unemployed and/or reeling from the economic crisis.

Instead, Harper ended his commentary with a message to those Arizonans who are “underemployed or overexpectant.”

“If you are relying on any services from the state that are not mandated by the federal government, I advise you that those services may end June 30, 2009.

“If you have children that require expensive experimental treatment or therapy that is not provided by the federal government, I advise that the state does not have the money for it after June 30.

“If you have been laid off from your job and are not willing to take a job that is available, unemployment benefits, food stamps and AHCCCS (Arizona Health Care Cost Containment System) for health care are going to fall short of what you could make by being employed.

“Arizona will not follow the country into socialism. If you feel you need greater assistance and are not able to move to another state, please turn to your local churches and give them the opportunity to show their generosity and love.”

That’s right, my fellow Arizonans, get off your lazy, free-loading unemployed butts and start digging some ditches or get out of town.

Geesh! Has Harper not read about the long lines at job fairs and, as just one example, the reports of thousands of people applying for a couple of hundred call-center jobs?

Sen. Scrooge – oops, I mean Sen. Harper – also argued that the state should reject the federal stimulus money that would allow Arizona to increase the maximum unemployment payment from $240 to $265 per week and extend the benefits to more jobless people.

“This would cause a tax increase on business to keep the fund stable and makes the provision unworkable,” he wrote.

I called to ask how much extra businesses would have to pay, but Harper didn’t return my call.

According to various media reports, accepting the stimulus money would require Arizona to extend unemployment benefits to an additional 10,000 people and the federal money for the new claimants would last about 11 years.

Meanwhile, Senate President Bob Burns, R-Peoria, like most other Republican legislators, is disinclined to follow Gov. Jan Brewer’s request that the Legislature either raise $1 billion in new taxes or send the issue to the people to vote up or down.

He expressed concern last week that such a ballot measure would turn into a lopsided affair, with groups that support the tax spending millions to persuade the voters.

In other words, he fears the voters will pass a tax increase that he doesn’t support. And, clearly, that could only happen if the gullible voters of Arizona didn’t really understand what they were doing.

Brewer, also a Republican, proposed the tax increase, along with another $1 billion in budget cuts and the acceptance of $1 billion in federal stimulus funds to plug the deficit.

“We cannot balance this budget on cuts alone, nor on taxes alone, nor on federal stimulus dollars alone,” Brewer said in a speech to the Legislature earlier this month. “We cannot place all of the burden on our children and their schools. We cannot place all of the burden on the parents that need day care so they can go to work and stay off welfare. We cannot leave the sick on the streets alone to fend for themselves, only to overload our hospitals and our jails.”

With those words, the governor separated herself from her Republican colleagues in the Legislature. They don’t get the concept of “government as a safety net.”

But she does.

Anne T. Denogean can be reached at 573-4582 and adenogean@tucsoncitizen.com. Address letters to P.O. Box 26767, Tucson, AZ 85726-6767.

These are five words I never thought I’d write: I support Gov. Jan Brewer.

The Republican governor-by-default gave her quasi-State of the State address Wednesday afternoon.

She outlined a multipoint plan for addressing the state’s roughly $3 billion deficit in the fiscal year that begins July 1. Her suggestions were reasonable, even courageous, but are not likely to get much support from members of either party in the Legislature.

At the top of the Republican’s list are spending cuts of another $1 billion and, uh oh, a tax increase of a like amount. Federal stimulus funds would make up the third billion of the deficit.

“I will match my 27 years of anti-tax, conservative credentials with anyone in public office,” Brewer said in the written version of her speech. “But as a very last resort, after considering every other option, and after doing a truthful and honest assessment of our economic situation, we must be willing to consider the passage of a temporary tax increase – approved by you and signed by me – or approved by the voters at a special election, of roughly $1 billion per year.”

The response from Republican legislative leadership was predictable, panning the tax increase proposal as “an economic downer” and all but dead on arrival.

Senate President Bob Burns of Peoria, as reported by The Arizona Republic, said, “I’m not in favor of a tax increase and I’m not prepared to vote for one.”

“Read my lips: no new taxes,” Senate Majority Leader Chuck Gray of Mesa told the Republic.

The Associated Press reported that GOP Sen. Ron Gould of Lake Havasu City walked out of the House chamber when Brewer proposed the tax increase.

“I was disgusted that the governor went to a tax increase this early in the legislative session,” Gould said, according to the AP. “We’re not that deep into the game. We can fix it with cuts and stimulus money. We don’t need a tax increase.”

I’m disgusted that a member of her own party would show such disrespect to a governor who, at the very least, is taking an honest approach to dealing with a difficult problem that isn’t of her making.

The Arizona Economic Council, in a media release, denounced Brewer’s plan on the grounds that it doesn’t have a plan “to create a single job during her term.” The Arizona chapter of Americans for Prosperity blasted the increase and said the $1 billion in planned budget cuts isn’t enough.

Legislative Democrats criticized Brewer’s tax proposal as short on details.

Well, that much is true. I wish she had put together a balanced plan for increasing tax revenues. Perhaps she thought that legislators, particularly the Republicans in charge, might find a tax increase more palatable if they crafted it themselves.

Brewer showed fairness and savvy by giving a political out to her GOP colleagues, many of whom have signed a pledge to oppose any tax increase. If they are unwilling to pass a tax increase, then send the matter to the voters, she said. Let Arizonans decide if they are willing to pay a little bit more in taxes to preserve critical state services.

Earlier this year, Sen. Russell Pearce, R-Mesa, dismissed residents opposing the university budget cuts as “whiners.” The “whining” has only increased as the Republican-dominated Legislature has sliced and diced funding for the K-12 system, state parks and services for children and families, all the while claiming there are no alternatives.

I’d argue this is a chance to let those so-called “whiners” – I’m sure Pearce would include me among them – put their money where their mouths are.

The other elements of Brewer’s plan include reforming and modernizing the state tax code, doubling the state’s rainy day fund and limiting the use of “fund sweeps.” Sweeps are raids on funds that have been designated for a specific purpose and, usually, built up with a specific fee or tax.

Brewer also wants to ask the voters to modify the Voter Protection Act, which blocks the Legislature from meddling with voter-approved initiatives. She said the law, passed by voters in 1998, was well-intended but paints state government into a financial corner.

Can’t back this one. I wouldn’t vote for any changes to the law. But, go ahead, ask the voters if they want to undo a measure that has done exactly what it was intended to do – keep lawmakers from undoing the will of the voters.

Brewer said she wouldn’t sign a budget that relied only on stimulus funds and state debt to close the deficit. Nor would she sign one with “unrealistic spending cuts.”

The governor sprinkled her speech with calls for “courage” and “wisdom” and asked that God bless the Legislature’s efforts.

Given the response that followed from members of our loony Legislature, I’m starting to think it may take an act of God – or an outright miracle – to solve this state budget crisis.

Anne T. Denogean can be reached at 573-4582 and adenogean@tucsoncitizen.com. Address letters to P.O. Box 26767, Tucson, AZ 85726-6767.

Almost everybody in the small, crowded room raised a hand when the host asked who present was a Republican.

No big surprise there. The event was Saturday’s invitation-only meeting between Republican legislators and the GOP members of the left-leaning state teachers association.

I crashed the Arizona Education Association’s party, unaware until later that it wasn’t open to the public and Democrats were specifically not invited. But, really, in the interest of transparency, I’m not sure that it’s a good idea for public officials to take part in quasi-public forums that are closed to certain people.

It gives the impression that something sneaky is going on, even when, as with Saturday’s meeting, there’s nothing to hide.

John Hartsell, the union’s director of public information, said one Republican legislator said he hears often from union members who always turn out to be Democrats, despite the union’s claims that Republicans account for 40 percent of its membership.

The union hosted the meeting to allow Republican lawmakers, who are considering sizable cuts to fiscal 2010 K-12 funding, to hear from those Republican members of the union, people who share their philosophy of governance.

“There are some teachers and core professionals who are registered Republicans and share the values of the Republican legislators and have the ability to have a conversation with each other about why public education is important and why a continued investment in public education is important,” Hartsell said.

I don’t think the union erred in gathering together its GOP members, but specifically closing it to the odd Democrat who might have attended was a disservice to both the union and the legislators.

The meeting itself – attended by GOP state Sens. Al Melvin and Jonathan Paton, Reps. Frank Antenori and Vic Williams, and Tim Bee of the governor’s Southern Arizona Office – was innocuous and largely nonconfrontational.

Several of the questions focused on charter schools and the observation that Republican legislators have a bias toward charter schools over traditional public schools. One math teacher, who said he was losing his best students to charter schools, asked legislators to address the perception that they are trying to destroy traditional public schools in favor of charter schools.

All the legislators repeatedly expressed their support for traditional public schools. And Paton responded, in a line that got a big laugh, that there’s a perception in the Legislature that the union is trying to destroy Republicans.

He urged the teachers to become more involved with the party, perhaps to run for precinct committeemen, as a way of making sure they have their legislator’s ear.

After the meeting, Tatiana Lown, a Rincon High School French teacher, said she thought the event was productive even though she didn’t get an answer to her question about how schools can attract professionals from outside of teaching if they don’t improve the compensation.

“I heard things about what they are thinking that you don’t always hear in the newspapers,” she said.

Such as?

Lown said she had the impression beforehand that Republican legislators were more interested in taking funding away from traditional schools and putting it into charter schools. She was somewhat impressed by the support they expressed for traditional schools.

“I hadn’t heard that level of commitment,” Lown said.

But, she added, what happens with funding is also important. She said she was affected by statistics presented by the union showing that Arizona is 49th in the country in per-pupil spending, down from being in the top third of states just 20 years ago.

“I still have questions,” Lown said.

Anne T. Denogean can be reached at 573-4582 and adenogean@tucsoncitizen.com. Address letters to P.O. Box 26767, Tucson, AZ 85726-6767.

Expecting all teenagers to remain abstinent “is not realistic at all.”

Don’t yell at me if you don’t like the message. I’m quoting Bristol Palin, who became the poster girl for teen parenthood last year, perhaps unfairly, when her mother’s vice presidential candidacy thrust the Palin family and Bristol’s pregnancy into the national limelight.

Earlier this week, Palin, 18, gave her first interview since the birth of baby boy Tripp Johnston on Dec. 27.

The unwed mother seemed sincere and unscripted when she told Fox News interviewer Greta Van Susteren that she wants to be an advocate for teen pregnancy prevention. But since she wouldn’t even discuss birth control, it’s not clear how effective she’ll be.

And that in a nutshell describes the whole problem with the abstinence-only sex education programs promoted by the federal government under former President George W. Bush and other social conservatives, including Bristol’s mom, Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin.

Teenagers are having sex but they aren’t being taught what they need to know to protect themselves.

Meanwhile, back on the ranch in Arizona, state Rep. Kyrsten Sinema, D-Phoenix, is sponsoring a sex education bill that will never see the light of day.

Earlier this month, just as state Rep. Nancy Barto, R-Phoenix, filed a sweeping anti-abortion bill that would hamper women’s access to reproductive health care, Sinema quietly filed House Bill 2544.

The bill would mandate that if sex education is taught in a public school, the program must be medically accurate and comprehensive. “Comprehensive” means teaching about abstinence, contraception, disease prevention and human development, as well as relationships, and decision-making.

Parents who object could have their child excused from the classroom.

“I introduced it knowing it probably wouldn’t get a hearing because I think it’s important for us, during this time of attacks on a woman’s ability to make these important life decisions, that we also talk about the prevention aspect of this,” Sinema said. “One of the best ways to prevent unwanted pregnancies is to ensure that people have the information they need to make informed decisions about their lives.”

Abstinence clearly prevents pregnancy and STDs. But the research just doesn’t back up abstinence-only education as a way of preventing teenage sex.

In late 2007, the nonpartisan National Campaign to Prevent Teen and Unplanned Pregnancy released a report on the quality of sex education in the United States. Researchers reviewed the scientific evaluations of 115 sex ed programs of both the abstinence-only and comprehensive (addressing both abstinence and contraceptives use) variety.

Two-thirds of the comprehensive sex ed programs showed a positive effect on teen sexual behavior, either delaying the initiation of sex or increasing the use of contraceptives, or both. And debunking the myth that such programs encourage teens to become sexually active, there was no evidence that any of the programs hastened the initiation of sex or increased the frequency of it. Even making condoms available at school clinics didn’t make teenagers more likely to have sex.

The researchers found that the most effective programs send clear and consistent messages about sex and contraceptive use. They talk explicitly about sex and contraceptives, identify specific situations that might lead to unwanted or unprotected sex, and involve practicing saying no to sex or insisting on contraceptive use.

Regarding abstinence-only programs, the researchers found that very few of the programs that receive millions in federal dollars have been subject to a rigorous scientific evaluation of their effectiveness. Of those that have, there’s no strong evidence that the programs delay the initiation of sex, lead sexually active teens to return to abstinence or reduce a teen’s number of sexual partners.

Despite the lack of evidence for it, the federal government has cold-shouldered comprehensive sex ed and primarily funded abstinence-only sex ed since 1996. States that want the money get it by providing matching funds that also are restricted to abstinence-only programs. Arizona became the 16th state to reject the federal money in January 2008 after spending millions on abstinence-only eduction.

Sinema’s bill isn’t going anywhere in a Legislature dominated by social conservatives. In fact, Barto chairs the health and humans services committee that would have to hear it.

But this issue isn’t going away just because we refuse to address it honestly.

Arizona has the fifth highest teen-birth rate in the nation. Clearly, what we’re doing now isn’t working.

Anne T. Denogean can be reached at 573-4582 and adenogean@tucsoncitizen.com. Address letters to P.O. Box 26767, Tucson, AZ 85726-6767.

Editor’s note: Citizen staffer Judy Carlock reviews the week’s events, with her own personal twist.

Isn’t it ironic? Subscribers to Comcast’s high-definition service didn’t get to see in vivid detail the porn clip regular customers caught in the fourth quarter of the Super Bowl Sunday.

Most of us look better in low resolution anyway.

The “appalled” cable provider offered a $10 credit for customers “impacted” by the clip.

In practice, Comcast can’t tell if you were watching or not. The number to call: 888-315-8219.

Inevitably, the guy-on-the-sofa glitch ended up on YouTube, his privates mercifully blacked out (when I saw it). The actress, beaming resolutely, looks ready to romp.

Is this what they mean by “cardinal sin”?

Mostly it made me think about how cheesy porn is.

Nevertheless, I played it back. For the touchdown.

Comcast still doesn’t know who put porn in Super Bowl telecast

Comcast has ‘some leads’ in Super Bowl porn incident

CHINA ROAD: “Third World conveyance disasters,” one editor here called the all-to-common stories about planes crashing in Indonesia, ferries sinking in Bangladesh or buses tumbling down cliffs in the Andes.

The toll would often be 100 or more.

Such figures dwarf the number of Chinese tourists – seven – killed in an Arizona tour bus crash Jan. 30. In the aftermath, national and state safety officials sought to pinpoint the cause of the wreck.

In a lot of countries, no one would expect an investigation, or even an explanation.

The deaths of the Shanghai tourists serve to remind that whether the toll is 700 or seven, someone’s heart is broken with every life lost.

License suspended for owners of tour bus in crash

PINK SLIPS: The Arizona Legislature’s slash-and-burn approach to budget cutting may turn out to be just the medicine our state needs to operate more efficiently.

Or not.

Throwing hundreds of people out of work strikes me as imprudent, even if the government is as bloated as state lawmakers think.

Especially if a wad of federal cash comes our way.

The Department of Administration this week laid off 138 people, or 17 percent of its staff. When the budget gets rearranged – as it must – we may need administrators.

If any of those jobs come back, I hope someone is keeping an eye on the new regime to make sure cronies don’t get weaseled in to plum positions.

Odds are it won’t be the Tucson Citizen. Unless someone passes a journalism stimulus bill.

Arizona Department of Administration lays off 138

Some Arizona rest stops, MVD offices may close

Budget fallout: UA to lay off 200, close 3 museums

8 state parks face closure after lawmakers make cuts

Arizona legislative chambers take different tracks

STIMULATED YET? Even some economists who support deficit spending fear the U.S. House’s version of an economic stimulus bill tries too broadly to enact the whole Democratic agenda.

On the Senate side, the mood may be more measured. Politicians who don’t run for re-election every two years may feel less pressure to do everything at once.

And “buy American” provisions brought concern from President Obama of a “protectionist message” that could affect crucial trade relations.

Even if he doesn’t need Republicans, he’d just as soon have some. For cover.

New break added to stimulus

Democrats kill McCain’s alternative stimulus plan

MAKEOVER MAGIC: “Extreme Makeover: Home Edition” is the stuff of nightmares to me. My dream house is a hotel – one that allows small pets.

The allure of the show, and the fantasies it represents, drew thousands to watch a Tucson family’s house demolished, then rebuilt in a few days.

Just the thought of $50,000 in furniture makes me phobic.

As one online reader asked, “Why does everything have to be overdone???????”

I guess for the same reason you need seven question marks.

Oops. What I meant to say was, “Thanks for reading!”

Very much indeed.

Volunteers made ‘Makeover’ possible for Lizzie, Bell family

Contact Judy Carlock at 573-4608 or at jcarlock@tucsoncitizen.com.

This December photo of San Xavier Mission shows completed restoration work on the tower at left. Funding to restore the tower at right has been eliminated as part of the Legislature's effort to balance the state budget

When state legislators cut Arizona State Parks funding as part of balancing the current fiscal year budget, they left nothing untouched.

The $26.3 million cut included a sweep of $4.9 million from the Heritage Fund, which, as its name implies, supports the heritage, history and culture of Arizona.

Defunding state parks is bad enough, but in raiding the Heritage Fund, the Legislature gave the middle finger to Arizona voters. Those voters created the fund in 1990, ordering that up to $20 million from the sale of lottery tickets be divided each year between the state park system and the Arizona Game & Fish Department.

The funds provide grants for projects to conserve our natural and wildlife resources. They are used for historic preservation projects, for building and maintaining trails and for acquiring land for open space or outdoor recreation facilities.

Despite public support for the fund, legislators have been looking for ways to raid it since its inception, said Beth Woodin, president of the Arizona Heritage Alliance.

The nonprofit alliance formed in 1992 to protect the fund has helped fight off more than 30 previous attempts by legislators to pillage it. Only once, in 2003, did the Legislature follow through with plans to take $10 million in Heritage Fund money from Game & Fish.

Woodin said just about every city and town in Arizona has benefited from the grants.

“The Heritage Fund represents education. It’s a form of education about historic monuments, about wildlife, about habitats. . . . To take that away is like taking away the foundation,” Woodin said.

Early this week, state park grant coordinators sent letters telling grant recipients not to spend the money that’s been awarded.

Linda Mayro, Pima County cultural resources manager, said in excess of $1.5 million in Heritage Fund grants for projects countywide will be lost.

The Pascua Yaqui tribe had been awarded $430,500 to develop Pascua Yaqui Park. Pima County is losing $59,700 it would have used to restore the historic Ajo Immaculate Conception Church. The nonprofit Patronato San Xavier lost the $150,000 it had been counting on to start restoration of the east tower of San Xavier Mission.

The red-meat Republicans who dominate the Legislature may think they’re quite clever in sweeping this fund, thus avoiding cutting the budget elsewhere or raising taxes. But it’s just another of their penny wise, pound foolish decisions and a poke in the eye to voters who told them two decades ago to keep their grubby hands off this money.

These projects often provide jobs, bring in matching federal and private grant money, and improve the assets that draw tourists to Arizona.

“These are our best amenities and it’s such a disinvestment to take this Heritage Fund away,” Mayro said.

Bill Meek, president of the Arizona State Parks Foundation, said chronic underfunding of capital needs is destroying our state parks.

“The state parks are a mess. . . . What the customers don’t see very much of is the erosion that’s going on behind the scenes,” he said. “They don’t see the wastewater systems that are being condemned by DEQ in almost every park in the state. They don’t see the walls that are about to fall down or did just fall down . . . because those things are sort of hidden from them.”

Legislative leadership has insisted that the budget must be hatcheted to address the state’s deficit, while ruling without any discussion of most alternatives, including – yes, I’ll say it – new taxes.

The deficit is daunting and deep cuts are unavoidable. But make no mistake about it, it’s the Legislature’s choice to swing the ax and let the parts fall where they may.

History, culture and education be damned.

Anne T. Denogean can be reached at 573-4582 and adenogean@tucsoncitizen.com. Address letters to P.O. Box 26767, Tucson, AZ 85726-6767. Her columns run Tuesdays and Fridays.

News is what happens to your editor. So reporters say. To our credit, we noticed the economy was bad even before the hooded guy with the ax showed up. I take it back, everyone in a position to hire me someday is wonderful.

The 5,000 job hunters who showed up at the Tucson Convention Center Tuesday drove it home. Gone is the guilty sense of relief – glad it’s not me!

Journalism has gone digital, and mainstream media organizations still struggle with making money on the World Wide Web. The junk aggregators and blathering blogs and navel-gazing narcissism of social networking may tell us what we want to know, but I for one still like someone vetting information for fairness, accuracy and all that jazz.

Maybe we’ll get it right some day.

In the meantime, pending the Citizen’s probable closure March 21, the company is offering us high-quality paper to print our resumes.

Leaving me to wonder: If print is dead, why does the quality of paper matter?

Thousands pack TCC for job fair

AX? TAX? FACTS? The state Legislature, eager to show how well it can do without popular former Gov. Janet Napolitano, appears to be closing in on a deal based mostly on cuts.

With a Republican governor, they’re free to do whatever they want without the threat of a line-item veto.

It’s not their fault they have that power in a year of plummeting sales tax revenue. Napolitano got a better job offer, so she left. Now she’s head of Homeland Security.

But the GOP should take care. Under three successive Republican governor-and-Legislature combinations, we chalked up two indictments, an impeachment and a giant government giveaway – an alt-fuel tax credit that had to be rescinded

A quick Net perusal tells me government is Arizona’s biggest employer. And our government is already smaller than most states’. An immediate $1.6 billion whack translates simply to this: More layoffs. Lots more layoffs.

Those laid-off government workers? They are constituents, too.

We’re not running on pure free markets or pure Marxist collectivism. Our government is a hybrid. Perfect? No. But it’s what we’ve cobbled together.

It’s easy to blow up a bridge. Harder to build one.

Arizona lawmakers to act to close shortfall

Thousands of students protest proposed university budget cuts

State may cut TUSD funding by up to $80 million

Arizona Indicators

DEFICIT HAWKS: Arizonans pay federal taxes, too. We’ll get some of that back. Though some lawmakers grouse about the strings that may be attached, they’re in no position to opt out of the Union. I don’t think.

So the hacking continues apace, as if we’re going to refuse our part of a big federal stimulus package.

Refusing federal money on ideological grounds qualifies as cutting off your nose to spite your face.

Legislators won’t lose face by accepting. They’ll save it. A good thing, in my opinion.

Somehow, some way – I really doubt government is going to make itself smaller. If we keep innovation alive without smothering initiative, we might get some bang for our tax bucks.

It’s worked before.

Grijalva, Giffords: Aim stimulus funds at workers, homeowners

Arizona lawmakers not waiting for federal stimulus

DRUG WARS: Meanwhile we go through all this trouble to seize perfectly good commodities – heroin, cocaine, marijuana – only to destroy them. Really, is that fiscally prudent?

We could sell it back to the cartels. Drop it over Afghanistan – screw up Al-Qaeda’s business plan.

If we were ideologically wedded to personal freedom, we’d sell it here. We buy into some government intrusion, except when we’re exercising our right to drive a 2-ton missile down Interstate 10.

Smuggling would still be illegal, so that we could seize the assets of the bad guys.

I hear the Border Patrol is hiring.

Ariz. detectives uncover pot house near Tucson

Fed seize drugs at border

Red-light cameras store video, too

HOW ‘BOUT THEM CARDS? Didn’t I always say they were headed to the Super Bowl? No. Thanks to the Internet I can make it look like I did.

Just go back to last week’s column, change it on the server and my digital tracks are covered, sort of.

In “1984,” George Orwell’s unlikely hero, Winston Smith, worked falsifying records at the Ministry of Truth.

Orwell didn’t imagine how easy it would become – or that we’d come to surveillance.

Finally, I love Big Brother.

On second thought: Forget I just said that.

George Orwell – Complete works

Steelers’ mild-mannered defensive guru a game changer

Warner’s Hall of Fame chances may be hurt by career lull

Contact Judy Carlock at 573-4608 or at jcarlock@tucsoncitizen.com.

Former Texas Sen. Phil Gramm infamously called Americans a “nation of whiners” during last year’s presidential campaign when he served as senior economic adviser to Sen. John McCain.

It would seem that state Sen. Russell Pearce, R-Mesa, shares the same lofty opinion of Arizonans – at least those who don’t want legislators to eviscerate social services, public education and universities in the name of balancing the budget.

Earlier this week, the Arizona Republic quoted Pearce, chairman of the Senate Appropriations Committee, as saying he would try to accommodate the public’s desire to have its say, but we “don’t want to have 300 people sign up to whine.”

Pearce didn’t return a call from me this week. But he repeated the sentiment to an interviewer from arizonaguardian.com, saying, “We are not going to have a forum just for Dr. Crow (ASU president Michael Crow) to send everybody on his staff down here to whine. I’m not going to do it. And I stand by it.”

Let me just say this: There’s straight talk and there’s stupid talk. Suggesting that the people who pay your salary are whiners is stupid.

The legislators have the difficult job of cutting $1.6 billion out of the fiscal 2009 budget for the year that ends June 30 and an estimated $3 billion out of the 2010 budget.

Not surprisingly, the members of the public want a say in how those cuts are made and what services are prioritized.

It’s not whining. It’s the democratic process.

“I think Russell Pearce has made it clear that he really doesn’t want to hear from the public,” said state Rep. Steve Farley, D-Tucson. “He’s got his own idea of what should be done and we should just shut up and let him do it.”

The public is showing, whether through calls and e-mails to legislators or by marching on the Capitol, that they want to be heard, Farley said.

“And I think we better listen to them,” he said.

On Wednesday, an estimated 2,000 students and other supporters of the state’s university system protested at the Arizona Capitol in Phoenix. The universities have come up with a plan to cut $100 million from the ’09 budget, but the Legislature wants to cut tens of millions more.

I guess all those folks were just a bunch of snot-nosed snivelers, not responsible citizens who care about the quality of education in Arizona.

To Pearce’s credit, he hasn’t suggested that Arizona’s economic crisis isn’t real. When Gramm called us “a nation of whiners” last year it was in the context of saying that the country was in “a mental recession,” not a real one.

I wish Gramm and Pearce would have attended Tuesday’s job fair at the Tucson Convention Center. They might have learned something about the character of the Americans and Arizonans that they are so quick to disparage.

I didn’t see any whiners there. I saw thousands of people willing to stand in the longest line of their lives in the hope of getting at least one lead on a job.

Brandy Ficzeri, 36, who was standing behind me in line, used to make $125,000 a year as a sous-chef in Cleveland.

Last year, she moved to Tucson, along with her life partner, to help out her mother-in-law, who had just lost her husband.

Ficzeri has been in the food industry for 24 years, including 10 as a certified chef. Unable to find employment for the last six months, Ficzeri said she’d take a job as a line cook for $12 an hour.

Far from being discouraged about either the lengthy line or her lengthy unemployment, she said the job fair was a great way to save people from driving all over town to file applications. And she was optimistic about her own prospects.

“There is a job out there. It’s got to find me or I’ve got to find it,” Ficzeri said.

Frankly, if I were Pearce I’d find another word to describe the resilient people of Arizona.

They deserve his respect and attention.

Anne T. Denogean can be reached at 573-4582 and adenogean@tucsoncitizen.com. Address letters to P.O. Box 26767, Tucson, AZ 85726-6767. Her columns run Tuesdays and Fridays.

<strong>Ron and Anne Walker</strong> (left) with <strong>Barbara and Vice President George H.W. Bush</strong> and <strong>Nancy and President Ronald Reagan</strong> at the 1985 Inaugural Ball at the Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts. Ron Walker was chairman of the 1985 Inaugural Committee.

Ron and Anne Walker probably would have been invited to Washington, D.C., next week for inaugural events had Arizona Sen. John McCain been elected president.

Instead, the Republican diehards will watch the Tuesday inauguration of Democrat Barack Obama on television at their Oro Valley home with hope in their hearts and an appreciation for the history-making moment.

“Obviously, there’s the historical perspective and significance of the first African-American, multi-racial president. I think it’s an exciting time and I wish him well,” said Anne Walker, 69.

“We’ve just crossed a barrier that we needed to cross a long time ago,” Ron Walker, 71, said.

The Walkers have a unique vantage point on presidents and Inauguration Days.

Ron Walker was a key organizer for three inaugurations. The couple have attended seven swearing-in ceremonies – from Richard Nixon and Gerald Ford to Ronald Reagan and George H.W. Bush to George W. Bush.

The Walkers, who graduated from the University of Arizona in 1960, moved back to Tucson in 1979.

Ron Walker, a retired government worker, began his career in Washington, D.C., as an advance man for Richard Nixon’s 1968 presidential campaign. He would serve as a special assistant to President Nixon and director of the White House advance office during Nixon’s first term. In 1973, he was named by Nixon as director of the National Park Service.

“When (Nixon) won in 1968, those of us on staff who had survived the road were invited to help not only on the inaugural, but the transition as well,” Walker said.

He helped coordinate the parade and the swearing in on Capitol Hill, held at the time on the Capitol’s east portico. It has since been moved to the west front. He had a role in planning the evening’s balls and accompanied President Nixon throughout the day’s events, “helping him figure out where he was going and what he was doing.”

Walker said inaugurations for both president and staff are more stressful than exciting. It is “full steam forward.”

The president has the pressure of delivering an inaugural address to the nation. There are receptions to attend and countless hands to shake. The new president is physically moving into the White House as the old president is moved out. New staff is arriving, trying to figure out the locations of the offices and the bathrooms.

“It’s a pain in the (bleep) is what it is,” Walker said.

It’s also the time when the new president realizes the great burden of the office.

There’s a realization, “which I’m sure is happening to President-elect Obama as we speak, of the awesome responsibility that comes with sitting in the Oval Office,” he said.

Ron Walker was the White House representative to the inaugural committee for Nixon’s second term, and a senior adviser for Ronald Reagan’s first inauguration. In 1985, he was asked to be chairman of President Reagan’s second inaugural, after having run the Republican convention in Dallas in the summer of 1984.

“I finished the convention in August. (Reagan) called me probably in September. It’s bad form and bad luck to be doing anything for inauguration before the election. . . . Anyway, we did not make any announcements until after the election in November, but I had been working on it probably since September behind the scenes, getting organized and picking my personnel,” Walker said.

He had to find sponsors and raise money for the inaugural events, put together a staff of more than 3,000, arrange for tickets for all who played a role in the campaign and coordinate with the military for the military escorts and ceremonies.

“I don’t think you sleep. I was running on adrenaline,” Walker said. “I had to see a doctor when it was all over.”

In preparation for Reagan’s second inauguration, Ron and Anne Walker walked the presidential parade route on Pennsylvania Avenue, from the Capitol to the White House. But Reagan wouldn’t walk it that year.

“One week later, I had to go to the president and Mrs. Reagan and cancel the parade. The wind chill factor would have been 12 below. We would probably have killed some kids from California that came with polyester suits,” Walker said.

He wasn’t kidding. He consulted with doctors from Antarctica who said the sub-freezing temperatures could kill a Secret Service agent stationed underground during the event.

The Walkers attended the first inauguration of George W. Bush but skipped the second one to give other party faithful a chance to celebrate.

The couple have known the McCains for years and are good friends with Vice President Dick Cheney and his wife, Lynne. The Walkers saw the Cheneys two weeks ago in Washington.

“They’re ready to get out of town. . . . They both feel that history will be kind to them and they leave with their heads held high,” Ron Walker said.

Despite their solid GOP credentials, the Walkers are taking the transition to Democratic rule after eight years of a Republican administration with complete sang-froid.

“The Republican party made some huge mistakes,” Walker said. “They shot themselves in the foot and then they reloaded and shot themselves in the foot again. Their time was due.”

Anne Walker said she hopes the country rallies around Obama and supports him in every possible way.

Ron Walker said he’ll have nothing but good feelings for the new president while watching the inauguration.

“I will be sitting in my home here in Tucson, wishing him well and Godspeed and hoping it’s a beautiful day,” he said.

Anne T. Denogean can be reached at 573-4582 and adenogean@tucsoncitizen.com. Address letters to P.O. Box 26767, Tucson, AZ 85726-6767. Her columns run Tuesdays and Fridays.

Anne Walker and Ron Walker with President George W. Bush and his wife, Laura, at a state dinner in the White House.

Vice President Dick Cheney and his wife, Lynne, with Ann and Ron Walker at a summer party in Jackson Hole, Wyo., in 2004.

Ron Walker's access pass and ID badge for the 1985 inauguration.

A small but significant change is brewing among young Catholics in the anti-abortion movement, and it hinges on a word that tends to make extremists on both sides of the debate gag: Compromise.

Although they cut their teeth at pro-life vigils and dipped into their allowances for diaper drives at crisis pregnancy centers, these young people are now being criticized by the very movement they’ve supported.

Some are finding themselves at odds with those they most love and respect in the world: their parents.

Such is the case of a local teen I interviewed last month about an open letter sent to President-elect Barack Obama.

Penned by a 20-something graduate theology student at Catholic University of America, the letter challenges Obama to live up to his statement in the third presidential debate that there is common ground on which people from both sides of the abortion issue could gather.

Utilizing youth’s innate talent for spotting contradictory reasoning, the letter points out that Obama’s let’s-find-middle-ground campaign rhetoric doesn’t mesh with his unquestioning support for the Freedom of Choice Act.

FOCA would repeal all current state and federal laws restricting abortion, including parental notification statutes and the federal ban on partial-birth abortion.

In a July 2007 speech to Planned Parenthood Federation of America – living now in infamy on YouTube – Obama said that one of his first acts as president would be to sign FOCA into law if it was passed by Congress.

The open letter is void of any hard-line rhetoric and has been cross-listed on more than 50 Catholic blogs. It’s drawn signatures from both liberal and conservative writers, and that of the Tucson 17-year-old whose Facebook page features pictures of Pope Benedict XVI and quotes such as, “It’s Saturday – go to confession.”

“As men and women who oppose abortion and embrace a pro-life ethic, we want to commend your willingness to engage us in dialogue, and we ask that you live up to your promise, and engage us on this issue,” the letter reads.

Then, the request and challenge: “If FOCA can be postponed for the present, and serious dialogue begun with us, as well as with those who disagree with us, you will demonstrate that your administration will indeed be one that rises above partisanship, and will be one of change.”

In spite of obvious traditional leanings, the Tucson teen was working to promote the open letter, believing Obama’s socio-economic plans will lead to fewer abortions even if the procedure remains legal.

When I interviewed him about the effort, I was impressed: He spouted poverty and abortion statistics like a sports reporter discussing lifetime batting averages and quoted Obama’s speeches the way Baptists cite the Bible.

He said the open letter supported measures including streamlining the adoption process and providing pre- and post-natal health care to pregnant women – efforts dovetailing with Obama’s belief that socio-economic conditions can lead a woman to choose abortion.

“And they are measures that, in a large part, have been neglected or even actively opposed by many pro-life elected officials,” the Tucson teen said.

Indeed, recent research has shown the abortion rate among women living below the poverty line ($9,570 for a single woman with no children) is more than four times that of women who earn at least $28,722, according to the Alan Guttmacher Institute.

The researchers found that supports such as benefits for pregnant women and mothers and economic assistance to low-income families have contributed significantly to reducing U.S. abortions over the past two decades, according to Catholics in Alliance for the Common Good.

I don’t know if this representative of Tucson’s best and brightest is still working with the open letter group because, days after our interview, I got an e-mail explaining that his parents didn’t want him featured in a story.

“We do not see eye-to-eye on some of the issues involved, and while I did not anticipate this problem . . . they seem fairly adamant in their opposition (and) it appears that I will have no choice other than to abide by their wishes,” he wrote.

It was disappointing, not only as a reporter, but as a Catholic. For too long, the war over abortion rights has been waged on an either-or battlefield: No abortion, no matter what, or unfettered access, no matter what.

“You can’t really compromise on abortion,” said Joe Scheidler, national director of the Pro-Life Action League. “It is like saying you’ll compromise on blasphemy or rape. You can’t have just a little rape – it is always wrong. They might have nice talks with (Obama), but that’s not what this is about. This is about outlawing the destruction of innocent human life.”

Some on the other side acknowledge that abortion snuffs out life, but representatives from Planned Parenthood say the decision about that life should lie with the pregnant woman alone.

“Common ground is a little different than compromise,” said Tait Sye, spokesperson for Planned Parenthood Federation of America. “We want to bring people together to prevent unintended pregnancy (but) we want Roe v. Wade upheld.”

Hear that folks? Scheidler is more blunt, but both he and Sye are saying the same thing: We want it our way or no way.

Yet, there is middle ground, and it is the place where, according to the latest polls, 54 percent of Americans would prefer to stand. It isn’t a perfect place and is too gray for the black-and-white chatterboxes because the starting point is legal, but somewhat restricted, abortion rights.

The young man in Tucson and the millions more like him who supported Obama’s candidacy think talking with the opposition instead of demonizing it might just point the way to that middle ground and change how our society deals with the tragedy of more than 1 million abortions annually.

Maybe they are naive. Maybe they’ll be shouted down by the folks on the fringes. But maybe, just maybe, they’ll be right.

Renée Schafer Horton can be reached at 573-4589 or at rshorton@tucsoncitizen.com. You can also read her posts at www.tucsoncitizen.com/blog.

———

ON THE WEB

The Open Letter to Barack Obama: vox-nova.com/an-open-letter

Abortion statistics: www.guttmacher.org

Obama’s speech to Planned Parenthood in 2007: www.youtube.com

House speaker says address has ‘curiosity value’

Gov. Janet Napolitano (right) and Secretary of State Jan Brewer after Napolitano delivered her State of the State address at the opening of the 49th Legislature. Brewer will become governor if Napolitano is confirmed for a Cabinet post.

If Gov. Janet Napolitano was expecting a fond farewell and “God Bless” from the Republican-dominated Legislature as she gave her final State of the State address Monday, then she hasn’t been paying attention for the past six years.

The response from Republican leadership afterward could be boiled down to one word:

Whatever.

In her speech, Napolitano acknowledged that difficult decisions lie ahead for the Legislature as the state wrestles with growing deficits.

She asked that legislators make choices that “are wise in the long run.”

“The task is to meet these great challenges with short-term decisions that do not dim the bright future of this remarkable state,” she said.

Such proclamations drew light applause – mostly from Democrats.

The Legislature has to cut about $1.6 billion from the current year budget and, in the face of equally bare-bones revenue projections for next year, pass a lean budget for fiscal 2010 year, which begins July 1.

Napolitano urged lawmakers to protect full-day kindergarten, early childhood education and teacher pay raises, and to continue to invest in the university system.

She asked them to consider their duty to care for the less fortunate in these hard times and to preserve services such as “education, foreclosure assistance, health care and shelter from abuse, neglect and domestic violence.”

She emphasized the need for the state to invest in its physical infrastructure with a statewide transportation plan.

But Napolitano could have stood on her head at the podium and delivered her speech in Japanese for all the impact it had on the Republicans who will set the course of the state for the next two years.

“It was a nice farewell speech and it’s probably counterproductive to get into critiquing it,” said Senate President Bob Burns, R-Peoria.

“The substance of the governor’s speech,” said House Speaker Kirk Adams, R-Mesa, “is nothing more than curiosity value at this point.”

Napolitano promised to deliver to legislators later this week a 2010 budget that is balanced and protects the priorities she cited without any tax increases.

Burns and Adams made it clear that she needn’t bother. It was important that she had a chance to say farewell, Adams said, but, “Is it relevant to the upcoming session? No.”

The Republicans offered no details on what their budget will look like, except to reiterate that nothing is off the table. Adams said the Legislature will have to make tough decisions and is ready to do so.

“It’s not a matter of ideology,” he said. “It’s just a matter of mathematics.”

Asked whether the Legislature will cut with a scalpel or a hatchet, Burns said, “We’ll have to figure out which one of those tools we’re going to use.”

The House of Representatives will hold a “budget boot camp” and the Senate a “budget summit” starting Tuesday to lay out the details of the budget shortfall.

The Legislature’s Republican leadership also is hosting two panel discussions, having invited business leaders and local government representatives to describe their efforts to deal with the downturn in the economy and the impact on their budgets.

“The fun and games ends today,” Adams said Monday. (Tuesday) we get to work.”

Anne T. Denogean can be reached at 573-4582 and adenogean@tucsoncitizen.com. Address letters to P.O. Box 26767, Tucson, AZ 85726-6767. Her columns run Tuesdays and Fridays.

Freshman legislator Vic Williams of District 26 on the Northwest Side and his son Trevor Williams, 7, at his new desk in the House of Representatives.

Freshman legislator David M. Gowan Sr. of District 30 shows off his new name badge at his new desk in the House of Representatives.

The anti-photo enforcement movement in Arizona is moving beyond Post-it notes and Silly String to disable the controversial traffic cameras.

For all the folks out there who think there ought to be a law against photo enforcement, you’ll get your chance to make it happen. CameraFRAUD, a grass roots, Phoenix-based group, is filing a proposed ballot initiative to ban photo traffic enforcement with the state on Monday.

If CameraFRAUD collects 153,365 valid signatures, the measure would be on the ballot Nov. 2, 2010, the next statewide election. The local offshoot of CameraFRAUD, Tucson CameraFRAUD, is holding its first public protest against the cameras at Oracle and River roads at 10 a.m. Saturday.

“The ballot initiative title is End Photo Radar,” said Shawn Dow, a volunteer with CameraFRAUD. “It’s a true citizens’ initiative. We don’t have any money behind us. It’s just us. It’s simple. It’s to the point.”

Dow, a 39-year-old insurance salesman and Republican state committeeman, said the cameras violate a citizen’s basic right to privacy, do little to improve safety and are being used to cover up “our inept government’s budgeting skills.”

In recent years, the state, various cities, including Tucson and Phoenix, and various counties throughout the state have implemented photo enforcement programs that use a combination of mobile and stationary units to catch speeders and red-light runners. In approving the programs, public officials generally have insisted the cameras are about improving safety, not the huge revenues they can generate through fines.

Pima County got into the game on Tuesday when the three Democrats on the Board of Supervisors approved a 20-camera photo enforcement program to catch speeders.

It’s surely of some significance to our safety that the system also will be capable of capturing violations of the state’s new ban on license plate frames that obscure the word “Arizona” at the top of the plate. The fine for that is $130.

In what could be viewed as acts of civil disobedience, some people believed to be associated with CameraFRAUD have temporarily disabled cameras in the greater Phoenix area by placing Post-its or Silly String over the lenses. Before Christmas, a small group of rebels used gift wrap and gift boxes to disable traffic cameras.

Dow said such actions aren’t illegal. The Department of Public Safety disagrees and has assigned an investigator to find the people responsible for obstructing its cameras.

In southern Arizona, the local anti-traffic camera movement is headed by, of all people, a man in uniform: Pinal County Deputy Bill Conley.

Conley, 46, an officer for 12 years, works under new Pinal County Sheriff Paul Babeu, who describes himself as “a strict constitutionalist” and who campaigned on the promise to get rid of photo radar in Pinal County.

Shortly after taking office on Jan. 2, Babeu lived up to his word and informed photo radar contractor Redflex that its contract would be terminated. But the Pinal County Board of Supervisors has delayed action on the contract until Jan. 21.

Conley said his own concern about the cameras has less to do with citizen privacy than with the greed of the governments behind the programs.

“Traffic laws aren’t there to tax. They are there to enforce,” Conley said. “I’m not against enforcing the laws. As a police officer, I welcome that. To me, it’s just a clear and improper motive on behalf of government.”

Conley said law agencies should dispatch officers to investigate at locations presenting legitimate safety concerns.

“They should sit at those intersections and start arresting people or issuing tickets,” he said.

The problem with cameras is that they have no discretion and create a zero-tolerance policy against speeding, which isn’t the policy of any law enforcement agency in the state, Conley said.

“When a police officer pulls a person over, there’s a human element involved. The state of Arizona gives authority to individual officers when it comes to traffic laws and misdemeanors to use their discretion whether they want to cite or not. Not every situation across the board is the same,” he said.

In some cases, a police officer can educate the driver without issuing a citation, he said.

“I’m receiving e-mail from people who haven’t received a ticket in 30 or 40 years and now they’ve received three or four. If there had been an officer to pull them over that first time and educate them, there wouldn’t have been a third or fourth time,” Conley said. “That’s fairness.”

Both Conley and Dow dismissed a recent DPS report, covering an 80-day period, that linked a drastic reduction in fatalities on the metro Phoenix freeways to photo enforcement.

“It was an ingenious way to try to combat bad press,” Dow said, arguing that fewer drivers on are on the roads and that the time frame studied was too short to draw a conclusion.

“Unfortunately,” Conley said, “the waters have been muddied here. DPS and the municipalities are arguing that this is a safety issue. But all you have to do is follow the money.”

The DPS photo enforcement program, originally sold by Gov. Janet Napolitano as both a safety measure and a way to help balance the budget, was touted to bring in $90 million this fiscal year, which ends June 30. The new Pima County contract is valued at $1.5 million.

The city of Tucson’s speed and red-light cameras brought in about $1.9 million during their first 13 months in operation, with nearly all of the revenues reportedly going to the contractor, the Arizona Supreme Court and to cover the local costs of administering the program.

Dow said CameraFRAUD has 650 volunteers ready to start collecting signatures for its ballot initiative. It also has a clever strategy.

“We are going to take voter registration cards with us, go to traffic schools and wait outside, and, as they let out, we’re going to register them to vote and collect signatures at the same time,” Dow said.

Uh oh. I hope for everyone’s sake that our city, county and state leaders don’t become too dependent on the gold mine that is photo traffic enforcement.

I suspect when voters (and angry drivers) have their say, that gold is likely to turn to dust.

Anne T. Denogean can be reached at 573-4582 and adenogean@ tucsoncitizen.com. Address letters to P.O. Box 26767, Tucson, AZ 85726-6767. Her columns run Tuesdays and Fridays.

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