Here and Now - Governor Napolitano

My husband and I have wanted to put in Solar panels since we purchased our house, but our HOA will not allow it. Can/Will the Arizona state Legislature pass some law that forbids this? I do not have the money to fight a HOA and then have them take my house. Thank You for your time. Chris and Amy Harvel, Gilbert Arizona

Why have you not done more to combat the invasion from Mexico? The legislature is doing an excellent job at trying to stop the onslaught.

Isn't this just another ploy to appease the conservatives that voted for you like the putting of national guards on the border. When will we see some action

Dear Governor, I've ask this question before and framed it badly. So here we go again. I'm interested if there are any plans to restrict 18 wheeler to designated lane? They currently travel all over the lanes at all time of day and night. I've witnessed heavy commercial vehicle in the HOV lane because there are two people in the cab. Can the average motorist expect some sort of relief from this heavy duty dangerous policy effecting our freeways?

Thanks for the great job you are doing at a very difficult in our beloved state.

James

I work for KidsCare/AHCCCS. We have been told that we may be privatized as early as April, 2008.
We have currently just a handful of seasoned workers because of our high turnover rate.
Our training has been extensive and is ongoing, yet we have been advised that the take-over company will only hire "some of us,
" leaving health insurance for Arizona's poorer children to be administered by mostly new hires.
I don't feel this is fair to the children of Arizona or to the loyal and dedicated KidsCare staff.
Governor, could you please comment.

I would like to thank the Governor for her diligent work on the states budget. Thank you for state salary increases, for holding the line on insurance costs, for the additional money designated for education and especially teacher salaries. Thank you for your year round work on land conservation, fire control and state wide transportation. I appreciate your dedication to the citizens of Arizona in all areas. Thank you for taking the time out of your busy schedule to visit the radio stations to keep us updated on what's going on at the Governor's office.
Keep up the good work. Respectfully,

If all the new budgetary priorities are so commendable, how come parents of severely disabled loved ones are just recently being squeezed so severely, beginning two months before the FY and end of session? Myself and other parents have been doing the States' dirty work for years for pay equivalent of sweat-shop labor; based upon arbitrary assignment of "payable" hours given to our kids; retractable at whim by political breezes.

Parents are easy prey; unwilling to give up care to institutions, unable to network due to privacy laws, too stressed emotionally and financially to launch a collective scream. We are an immorally exploited lot, and it is truly disgusting that all the "pretty" budget bling is to be sucked from the lives of our kids.

( I can't reveal my identity, as DDD is taking us to court over just such a "paid hour" issue. Being too public might jeopardize our case).

While there are obvious benefits to “at will” employment in your administration, are you aware of the devastating impact it has when it is used for personal motives unrelated to the needs of state government?

I suggest you consider a review process for "at will" employees prior to their being fired, to avoid terminations at the whim of the good old boys running the agencies.

In my own case, I was terminated early this year without any past performance issues, budget cut, or other basis that warrants being fired without notice.

This action has resulted in working against your 3 top priorities as Governor.
Here are some of the consequences:
• My children and I are now without any medical insurance.
• As the sole provider of a household, another Arizona family is unemployed.
• With a termination in my job history, prospects for finding a new job are dismal.
• I can no longer provide supplemental education for my children.
• The State has lost a very dedicated and competent employee, and has to pay the unnecessary costs of replacing and training a new one.

I am one of your strongest supporters and applaud the progress you’ve made in education, jobs and children. Nonetheless, I urge you to consider policies that reach beyond the black letter of the law and create a spirit of equity and fairness in your administration with a process to prevent someone's arbitrary decisions that increase costs to Arizona taxpayers and impose ruinous consequences on its families.

Would you comment on the feasibility of reducing the speed limit in the State to a maximum of 55 mph? Cars run most effeciently between 50 and 60 mph, we would significantly reduce gasoline/ diesel consumption by millions of gallons daily (nationwide), reduction of CO2 emissions and reduce dependence on forign oil imports. These were all tangible benefits of the actions taken by the government during the 1973 OPEC embargo. Additionally, highway fatalities raised expotentially with the increases in the speed limits.
Would you be willing to take the lead amongst the states to address these issues by taking the unpopular, at least to some, position of reducing our internal speed limits?

Hey Gov! I love you and if you run for Pres I'll work for you.

I once heard Alan Greenspan say that 5% unemployment is considered full employment because of those 1.5% are terminally unemployable and 1.5% are actually between jobs. According to the Department of Labor here in Arizona our unemployment rate is currently 4.8% or about 110,000 people.

The Urban Institute estimates we have between 250,000 and 350,000 undocumented workers in Arizona.

So my questions are, Governor: Who is going to do the work? And what do YOU think the long term effect of a worker shortage might be?

Governor – I’m one of your supporters and am resident alien

I hold a general contractors license here in Arizona and another in California. I own and manage a construction company in Phoenix and hold the hard won reputation for always being on time and on budget.

I am always keen to hire skilled, legal, workers and tradesmen – even unskilled if they are willing to learn. However; once I have subbed the big departments, plumbing, electrical etc I am still left with ½ the project that necessarily has to be achieved by many multi faceted workers. I have poached whole crews to moonlight from huge famous national builders; in both the case of a masonry crew and a dry walling crew it turns out 4 were legal the other 25 illegal. (Very skilled, very likable, honest and hard working but forbidden to work in the US). I have tried the employment agencies, they can never provide anyone quickly, and couldn’t provide anyone even with plenty of lead time that was reliable, skilled or enen keen. I’ve tried subbing out general labor only to discover that the guys were not being paid adequately or fairly and were still illegal anyway. The contractor’s board is no help at all (Incidentally, why do I pay into a fund so that homeowners can be compensated for hiring non licensed contractors?) In 2 ½ years I have found exactly 1 out of approximately 250 workers that are entirely legal.

My job is to provide the best service I can for my customers and my moral responsibility is to take care of all those who work for me. It is the government’s job to create a feasible safe environment in which business can be done; businesses that in turn pay taxes from which the Government gets the funds to hold up its end of the bargain. I pay tax and I pay my guys enough to pay tax but you are not making it possible for that tax to be collected nor is there any legal option apparently open to me or the other 51,069 contractor license holders in this state when they need labor.

1. Where or how can I find the legal workers that I’m taking the work from?
2. Have you signed this bill with a, French type fingers-crossed-attitude of “sign with no intention of following through” or do you really intend to enforce a law that if done properly will put up construction costs and stop the industry dead.

Thanks for taking my questions and points

Andrew

Obviously after that confession I’m withholding my company name and my real name, and I supose when/if I get busted I’ll be put out of business.

What is your view on the citizen-driven property tax ballot initiatives that would dramatically cut property tax resources across the state?

Given that the governor has some concerns about terms of the immigration bill she signed recently, and also that it won't be effective until January 1, please ask her to tell us exactly what local, county and state law enforcement officials are empowered to do to enforce federal immigration laws. Isn't it already illegal to employ illegal immigrants? If so, why do we need to wait until a new law becomes effective. Why not do what we are already authorized to do to enforce current law? I agree with her 1000% of the importance of cracking down on employers of illegal immigrants and eliminating as much as possible the circumstances that attract them. Where I grew up, we washed our own cars, high school students did landscaping (and shoveling snow) and even harder, more labor intensive jobs such as detasseling corn (hot, buggy, humid, and you get very scratched up and dirty). That's just what they did to earn money and were grateful for the opportunity. Employers who insist they can't fill jobs might be honest and say they can't fill jobs for very low wages. Raise the wages enough and you will fill them. If a student is not willing to work at the car wash or landscaping company for the going rate, it is because he/she has better options. Compete, employers. And why don't the rest of us do some of this stuff for ourselves, as that will also reduce the demand for illegal labor.

Every time I hear the Governor on Here and Now, I think to myself how sensible and reasonable she is. This seems so rare in government these days.

No question or rant here -- just thanks to the Governor from one sensible and reasonable constituent who appreciates her service.

Many employees, especially small ones, may be afraid to hire any Hispanics for fear of violating the new immigration law. What preparations will the state be fmaking to deal with this problem such as increasing the number of employees in the Attorney General's Civil Rights Division to handle the likely increase in complaints?

The governor's phone number to find out about the new solar energy and HOA bill is 602.542.1318.

Is it possible for Arizona to issue work permits that would be valid just in Arizona even though the federal government would not recognize it?

If border states did that, would it not force the federal government to do something?

PS I am using my home e-mail, but I am sending this from my work e-mail.

On this program it was mentioned how we are trying to address the underlying economic issues in regards to immigration. Has anything been done by the government to investigate the economic conditions in Mexico and other Latin American countries that are causing people to illegally immigrate to the U.S., and possibly work with the Mexican government on economic issues?

Governor, you stated earlier that it was good that the new immigration bill was not a ballot initiative because it needs some important tweeking and once a ballot inititiative has been voted on it can't be changed. I'm wondering how the ballot initiatives for medical marijuana that were approved twice by an overwhelming majority of the voters, were overturned by the state legislature?

I'd like to start by saying that I think that our gvenor is one of the finest in the country. With that being said I'd like to make a comment and post a question:

Comment; I think the immigration talk and uproar reeks of either McCarthism or racism. There are 12 million illegal aliens in America - 4 million of which are not from Mexico but from Canada Europe and Africa. I believe the bill failed the house because of this McCarthism - it is easy to recognize a person as Mexican ( maybe ) but if you're white and from Europe or Canada ( and they are here in Arizona as well as Mexican ) how do you go about reporting those business' who are hiring illegals, how can you tell? Wouldn't it start a new era of McCarthism but instituting this bill?

Question; Would INS/Border Patrol arrest a white person who is illegal and how would they tell?
Would it be wise to have nieghbors eye each other like the 50's and the hunt for those Bad Communist?

What about small business owners that aren't dependent on illegal labor but are dependent on the spending dollars of illegal immigrants. ie. food, entertainment, services, etc.? Will they be the sad casualties of this bill?

name pronounce: so-cheat-lee

Regarding immigration:
I hear a lot of discussion about penalizing employers who hire illegal immigrants which I fully support; however, I have yet to hear anything about changing what goes on in the U.S. --such as governement subsidisation of crops --which causes economic hardship abroad in turn causing a need for people to immigrate to the U.S. to survive.

So sad to hear that you have knuckled under to the knuckle-headed legislation by the knuckle-head from Mesa. Why should we target the only clearly responsible non-documented immigrants: those that are working. They are the only ones paying income and social security taxes. They are ones most worth keeping as potential new citizens. They are generally decent hard working people who have already proven their worth. If you want to banish all the illegals, get cut-throat like Pierce, and do something that will definately work: make it a felony to sell food to an un-documented immigrant. I guess he hasn't thought of that YET. After enough die of starvation, the rest will get the idea of what America is all about and go back to Mexico. Maybe I'll go with them.