Major
Accomplishments
These
two bills, in particular, are both high-impact bills that
will
positively affect the state for years to come. Either one of
them
would be considered career-defining
by most legislators.
2007
- Municipal Sales Tax Incentive; Penalty
- The legislature finally passed a bill to strongly discourage
cities from giving multi-million dollar tax giveaways to favored
companies and developers. This practice had gotten way
out-of-hand in recent years. I think we've seen the last
of the $100 million "incentives" for things like
parking garages. This common-sense measure passed with
rarely-seen strong bi-partisan efforts, led by Sen. Ken
Cheuvront (D-Phx) and myself. Sen. Cheuvront and I have
fought to pass this bill for years. Despite Herculean
efforts by certain developers and a few cities to kill the bill
again, our persistence finally paid off. Sen. Cheuvront
and I disagree, often strongly, on about 80% of the
issues. But in this case, bi-partisan cooperation was the
key to victory. 2006
- Displaced Pupils Choice Grant
- After much negotiation and compromise, I was able to get the
votes to pass the first new school choice program in the United
States that would be signed by a Democrat governor. Not
only does this program give foster children a better chance to
succeed, it actually costs the state less than sending them to a
traditional public school. The Displaced Pupils Choice
Grant provides up to $5,000 to send any child who is or has been
in the state foster care system to any school of the parent or
guardian's choosing. Many children who have been in foster
care have a wide variety of educational challenges as a result
of the abuse, neglect and/or instability they have
experienced. Often, even in the best school districts,
these children have such unique special needs that they don't
get the individualized attention they need to catch up with
their peers. Foster
children currently graduate high school and attend college at
approximately half the rate of the general population.
Despite all of this, the teachers' unions will stop at nothing
to block this and any other idea that takes even one child out
of government schools, because it might mean fewer union
teachers are needed by districts. Apparently, it isn't
always "about the children," after all.
This
bill was groundbreaking on a national scale and set the stage
for similar bills in several states around the country.
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