Pub. 3 2013 Issue 1

14 www.azbankers.org Under the Copper Dome By JAY KAPROSY, Veridus G O VERNOR BREWER KICKED OFF THE 2013 LEGISLATIVE SESSION WITH A STATE OF THE STATE SPEECH THAT LEFT MANY speechless. Her top priorities are fo- cused on the vulnerable in our society, the importance of funding recent education reforms, and freeing Arizona businesses from regulation and tax burdens. Nobody was quite sure what to expect, but Governor Brewer pulled no punches and committed herself to strongly pursuing these objectives. The biggest surprise of the speech was Brewer’s call to expand the Arizona Health Care Cost Contain- ment System (AHCCCS), Medicaid in Arizona. After pushing back against Obamacare through lawsuits and her refusal to participate in creating a state health insurance exchange, Brewer thoughtfully weighed the pros and cons of Medicaid expansion. Her own party wants her to continue the fight against Obamacare, but Brewer determined that Arizona could not turn its back on the economic ben- efits of the federal matching dollars or the societal benefits of providing meaningful healthcare to Arizona’s citizens. This will no doubt be the biggest battle of the session. How- ever, Brewer has anticipated many of the opposition’s arguments and has proactively provided solutions that should serve to short-circuit the opposition. If the federal govern- ment reduces financial support of Medicaid, the legislation will contain a circuit breaker to repeal the ex- pansion. To those who say we can’t afford it, the Governor has proposed a fee on hospitals to offset any cost to the General Fund. Governor Brewer also continued her dedication to education and improv- ing the academic results of students in our public education system. She does not propose simply appropriat- ing more money to the schools; rather each of her new spending priorities in education are tied to the measur- able academic goals adopted by the Arizona Ready Council. New monies will be spent on raising the academic bar with the state’s adoption of the Common Core standards and pro- viding the resources to schools to get the additional training they need to improve early reading. She also stated her strong support for a robust student data system that will allow us to better monitor academic achieve- ment, and quickly deliver this data to schools and teachers to benefit in- struction in real time. The data system is also critical to adopting the perfor- mance based school funding system that will provide financial incentives to schools that increase academic growth and sustain academic success. Arizona’s economy has begun to slowly recover from the Great Recession. To do so required difficult choices including a temporary sales tax increase and the sale-leaseback of many government facilities. As the Legislature convenes they will be de- liberating over a budget that includes a revenue surplus of approximately $500 million and $450 million in the Rainy Day Fund. However, the Republican majority is approaching this budget very cautiously as projec- tions suggest that revenue surpluses will be short lived and that the state Promoting Quality Legislation That Will Promote Economic Stability The Arizona banking industry will be busy this session as well; promoting quality legislation important to the Association’s member banks and furthering policies that will promote economic stability. Q Under the Copper Dome | continued on page 17