Community Activist

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Increasing the Performance of Arizona Schools

Arizona public schools suffer from administrative bloat and poor management. We need competitive schools that reward good teachers, give parents real choices among schools and prepare students for today’s knowledge economy. Arizona needs to learn from its charter schools and private schools, which spend less money than district schools and achieve higher student performance. Specifically, we should:

• give Arizona parents a scholarship for each child yearly, to be spent at any school—public, private, or charter—with any money they save going into a family education account for tutoring, after-school help, or college tuition
• expand Arizona’s successful scholarship tax credit to allow corporations to contribute to student scholarships, a reform that District 15’s incumbent representatives have opposed
• combat racial discrimination in special education and mislabeling of students as learning disabled by giving a full scholarship to any child who has been labeled by his or her district as learning disabled, enabling that student to transfer to a public, private or charter school

Making Neighborhoods Safer

1) Allow Neighborhoods to Hire Professional Security Services

The police do their best to serve and protect us, but there are not enough of them to provide true security, especially in less affluent neighborhoods. Arizona should give each property owner a property tax credit of at least $100 per $100,000 of value to be used for the provision of security services. By pooling these tax credits, neighborhood associations, HOAs and apartment owners can provide 24-hour security personnel to patrol our neighborhoods. By patrolling our neighborhoods, private security personnel will free up the police to arrest criminals and investigate crimes. Wealthy neighborhoods already have private security guards—we should all have that kind of security.

2) Focus Law Enforcement Resources on Reducing Violent Crime

Arizona must focus its criminal justice resources on the murderers, rapists and child molesters who threaten our neighborhoods. Arizona’s prisons are overcrowded and the state’s police officers, prosecutors and judges are overworked. In Maricopa County, 300 prosecutors must handle over 30,000 cases. 11,000 of those cases are drug-related. The arrest, prosecution and imprisonment of nonviolent drug offenders are burdens the system cannot afford, especially when violent criminals are paroled and returned to the streets to prey on society.

3) Make Homeowners Secure Against Violent Crime

We must support the right to keep and bear arms, and the right of homeowners to defend themselves and their families from violent predators. Under current Arizona law, a gunowner who defends his home is presumed to have committed a crime and is at the mercy of prosecutors—a case of guilty until proven innocent. That law must be changed. No one should be treated like a criminal for defending his or her home or family from dangerous intruders.

Reforming Arizona Government

1) Stop Out-of-Control Government Spending and Pass-the-Buck Politics

In the face of record budget deficits, the Governor and the Arizona Legislature have increased spending and increased debt. It is time to recognize that Arizona’s politicians have a spending problem and to take corrective action. We need a Colorado-style Taxpayers’ Bill of Rights that will slow the growth of government to the rate of population growth plus inflation. Government should not grow faster than the state’s economy. Further, we must encourage our legislators to vote against spending increases or debt increases that pass the buck to future legislatures and future generations of taxpayers. Arizona families must set their budgets according to how much income they have, and state government should do the same. Remember: it’s our money they’re spending!

2) Help Small Businesses by Reducing Burdensome Regulations

Prospective entrepreneurs, charities and social service providers are hampered by bureaucratic red tape. Some state regulatory boards act as protection rackets, keeping prices high and preventing people from starting businesses and climbing up the ladder of success. Last year, the State Board of Cosmetology barred an experienced African-American hairbraider from practicing her trade, telling her she needed to complete 1,600 hours of cosmetology training at a cost of more than $10,000. In February, the Arizona Structural Pest Control Commission told a 17-year old entrepreneur that he could not earn money for college by protecting the homes of his elderly neighbors against roof rats. Instead of punishing ingenuity and creativity with regulatory barriers and licensing fees, we must make Arizona a place where people are free to start businesses and free to make a living.

3) Protect Private Property Rights

If government regulations diminish the value of your property, you should be compensated for your loss. Government should not take your home or business and give it to the politically connected. Also, bar and restaurant owners should not be forced to ban smoking in their own establishments.

4) Promote Growth by Reducing Taxes for All Arizona Taxpayers

Arizona competes with Colorado, Nevada and Texas to attract investment dollars and create jobs. All three states have lower tax burdens than Arizona does, and Nevada and Texas do not have income taxes. Arizona’s industrial property taxes are the third highest in the nation. We must eliminate or dramatically reduce Arizona’s income taxes and help businesses by reducing the assessment ratio for business property taxes. A vibrant Arizona economy depends on letting people earn, save and invest for the future.