I've been wondering how long this would take.
Back in the late 1980s, after Governor Evan Mecham rescinded Arizona's MLK Holiday, which kicked off a flurry of boycotts and canceled conventions, the business community stepped up to the plate pretty quickly. Sure, there were many civil rights organizations involved with Victory Together, the group that put the Holiday back on the ballot and urged its passage, but what also helped get the movement off the ground was the early participation of business leaders, who saw what Mecham's boondoggle was doing to their bottom line. Some of course joined for the right reason as well.
The universities, youth organizations, and human rights groups brought passion, while the corporate sector brought financial backing, organizational structure, and political connections. It took a while, but the MLK Holiday was eventually passed, making Arizona the only state where it's a voter-approved Holiday (elsewhere it was a legislative or gubernatorial act).
Last year about this time as SB 1070 was being debated, I wrote several diaries that asked where the voice of the business community was -- especially the state's vital tourism sector, which was about to get hammered by the anti-1070 backlash. Phoenix alone quickly lost more than $90 million in canceled conventions, and statewide the Arizona Tourism Alliance put the loss at a billion dollars. Plus, tourism survives partially on image, and our state's went into the shitter, where it remains -- even though the Governor appropriated $250,000 and appointed a public relations commission to rebrand the turd left by the "papers please" bill. Yeah, good luck with that.
How in the world could the tourism industry, the Number One economic engine in the state, remain silent when the legislature was about to pass a piece of racist drivel that would undercut their bottom line more than any previous legislation? Nor at this time last year did we hear much from Arizona's CEOs, whose industries, whether housing, banking, or high tech, feed off the state's gangbuster growth -- which was about to take a beating. Why the silence?
One reason is that the political landscape is different from Mecham's day. Few movers and shakers supported the ultra-conservative car dealer from Glendale. The little toupeed-one was a joke to many people -- a goofball who cranked out a fundamentalist newsletter and ran for the state's highest office regularly. Who'd a thunk it that he might actually win? So, most of the business community had no allegiance to a soon-to-be-impeached wackjob elected in a 3-way race with less than 40 percent of the vote. Also, both chambers of the legislature during Mecham's short tenure were more balanced between the parties.
Today, however, the growth-at-any-cost Republican Party is a subsidiary of the state's corporate sector, and the GOP has a 2:1 majority in both houses. It's no coincidence this session that, as the legislature cut schools, universities, healthcare, state parks, and every social program imaginable to the bone, they've also provided a healthy tax cut to their corporate benefactors. Not surprisingly, the amount Brewer wants to rob from Medicaid, about $541 million, is almost exactly the same amount she'll hand over to businesses in the form of a tax cut. Funny how that works out.
Unlike Mecham, the business community supported Headless Bodies Brewer and most of the crazy Republicans who are now running the state -- people like Speaker of the House Kirk Adams, whose hard-on for lower corporate taxes always ranks him high on those "Friend of the Taxpayer" surveys that anti-tax, pro-business groups publish. So early on, as SB 1070 started to take shape and Arizona found itself in a stinking national spotlight, many business leaders refrained from speaking out against the team they had installed. Brewer was their gal, a moderate they'd known for decades, but nativist Russell Pearce, with help from the Mexican-bashing Tea Party, had pushed her way into wingnut land.
Now we hear the business leaders are having second thoughts. Today the Arizona Republic reported:
Dozens of major Arizona employers are urging state lawmakers to not pass additional legislation targeting illegal immigration, saying it would damage the economy and tourism industry.
A letter signed by CEOs of major employers and several business and civic groups says Arizona should be pushing for federal action on immigration and border issues.
Here is a PDF link to the letter, sent today to Senate President Russell Pearce (not to the Governor, they know who's driving us over the cliff). It says in part:
While we recognize the desire for states like Arizona to fill the leadership vacuum left by federal inaction on immigration, we strongly believe it is unwise for the Legislature to pass any additional immigration legislation, including any measures leaving the determination of citizenship to the state.
That last part refers to Pearce's attack on the citizenship clause of the 14th Amendment, which will not only cost the state millions (we don't have) to litigate, but bolster Arizona's image as a petty, discriminatory place. Pearce's bill redefining citizenship easily passed a committee vote 8-5 last month.
The first reaction of many to the letter might be, "Sure, they just want cheap labor," and no doubt there is some of that behind this, especially since the Arizona Chamber of Commerce is one of the 70+ signatories. But the letter was also signed by leaders from the high-tech industry (like Intel), the CEO of PetsMart (headquartered here), the partners of large law firms, as well as the heads of US Airways, Wells Fargo, Blue Cross/Blue Shield, and the Arizona Republic. These aren't companies that just want cheap burger-flippers.
Certainly businesses here have to be concerned. For the past few months corporate and community leaders have been working to stave off deeper cuts to the schools and universities. Groups like Expect More Arizona run full-page ads in newspapers and PSAs on TV urging Arizonans to stand strong against further cuts to education, since we're 49th or 50th in every significant education indicator -- not good for any state trying to build a 21st-century economy. Community leaders can't be happy about what happened yesterday, when we heard that ex officio Governor Russell Pearce wants to double-down on the cuts proposed by Jan Brewer:
The Senate is poised to vote Wednesday on an $8 billion budget that would cut more deeply into education and social services than Gov. Jan Brewer has proposed.... In all, the Senate plan calls for $600 million more in spending reductions than the plan Brewer presented to lawmakers in January. Arizona Republic
Predictably, schools and universities will bear the biggest hit -- $65 million more than Brewer's $170 million cut -- as if they haven't been clobbered enough already. The legislature has already passed a bill in committee that will do away with Medicaid as we know it; the additional cuts will require the Department of Economic Security to eliminate childcare subsidies, and the state will "save" $55 million from corrections by shifting the burden to counties. Neat accounting there.
It remains to be seen if Senator Russell Pearce and his Know Nothings at the legislature will pay any attention to the CEOs' letter. They're on such a cowboy high with their vicious budget-cutting axe that I doubt they'll even read the damn thing. They've already got a long list of anti-immigration bills in the hopper, including Pearce's "omnibus bill" SB 1611, which makes it illegal to do just about anything with a brown face. And yesterday (h/t DaNang65) another piece of crap was introduced:
State senators voted Monday to put a roadblock in the path of state officials who want to talk to customers and constituents in their native languages. East Valley Tribune
Because that's been our problem all along -- too many damn languages. And so they pass another "economic development" bill, just like the Tea Party license plate, the Birther Bill, or the Colt firearm "Official Weapon" bill. Yep, moving forward ... into the past.
Hey business community! Buyers' remorse much? How far does your tax cut go when you're trying to operate in the Somalia of the Southwest?
