Yumans add voice to state issues
The following statement will be shared with other communities in Arizona and the state government about what Yuma leaders think is important. The statement was approved by a yes vote from a majority of attendees at the Arizona Town Hall event held Wednesday:
“Our state government should pull out all stops to make Arizona competitive in the world market. We need a good plan to maintain and create good jobs. To maintain and create good jobs, it is important that Arizona's State government engage in more long term planning with a focus on making Arizona competitive.
“To truly make long term planning happen we need to change certain government structures. Specifically we need to abolish term limits and consider increasing the length of terms. Next we need to reform or abolish public financed elections, create competitive legislative districts and raise legislature's salaries.
“We also need to change the state government system for raising revenue. Specifically, we need to simplify our tax system, eliminate the constitutional super majority requirement, raise or eliminate the debt limit and end unfunded mandates and legislative sweeps.
“When making changes to our revenue system, we need to be especially sensitive to the need for local control. Finally, the key to success for these recommendations is civic education and citizen involvement at the grass roots level. Reform starts with us.”
Several local politicians and community leaders, including Yuma Mayor Al Krieger, gathered at the Yuma Main Library Wednesday to discuss Arizona's future.
Arizona Town Hall was in Yuma to bring Arizona citizens together to learn about, talk about and determine what to do about Arizona's toughest issues.
Many of the Yuma attendees took turns expressing their opinions on separate subjects such as term limits, clean elections and the state budget deficit.
After the discussion and debate, Tara Jackson, Arizona Town Hall president, wrote a synopsis of the group's recommendations, which will be shared with other communities across the state, and with state officials in office. (See sidebar for statement).
“I think it identified the issues that are in Arizona, and they are all pertinent to Yuma, so I think the group had a lot of insight in identifying those issues and it is certainly worthwhile to sit and discuss them,” Ken Rosevear, Yuma County Chamber of Commerce executive director, said after the event.
Rosevear is concerned with bringing new jobs to Yuma.
“That is the business I am in and I think this state is never going to get in a real recovery mode until we get these people back to work. Part of it is getting government out of the way. That is certainly part of the equation, but we've got to get people in the mood to spend money and feel comfortable that what is happening is going to lead to recovery.”
Julie Engel, president and CEO of the Greater Yuma Economic Development Corp., said, “We have amazing recommendations that come out of these town halls.
“There were answers to the problems that are really hamstringing Arizona right now, and what I would like to see is these recommendations be implemented.”
Those recommendations include tax reform, legislative reform, economic development and a focus on education, Engel said.
“We have to restructure the way our budget is, we have to provide elective leaders the ability to fund those mandates that the citizens want, and in order to do that, we have to redo the way initiatives are done — we have to restructure.”
Such change will undoubtably take time, Engel cautioned.
“None of these are immediate fixes, but the issues weren't immediate. They happened over time, and we have to recognize it will take time to repair.”
It is up to the voters of Yuma to get involved in the change, Engel added.
“I am hearing consensus on so many levels about what needs to happen — that if it doesn't happen then new people will be elected. They will start getting rid of the legislators who aren't listening to the citizens and elect people who will.”
Jackson was happy with the ground covered during the discussion. “Today we had a mini town hall, essentially where we took the work of the statewide town hall, brought it to a local community and then got their input on it.
“The discussion was fabulous, which means lots of different people weighed in with some different opinions. They are passionate citizens of the state and that is what is great.”
Chris McDaniel can be reached at cmcdaniel@yumasun.com or 539-6849.
