2. Jobs

People are struggling.  Most of the people I've met who have jobs consider themselves fortunate.  Many, however, are either under-employed or struggling to find jobs.  I met one woman who worked for the County for 30 years as a Corrections Officer, and now  she can't even get a job in retail because she is "over-qualified".  Another tried to get a job at a local fast-food place and was told he wasn't qualified at all.  He has a background as a short-order cook.

 
We have this great need for jobs to be created, yet what does our legislature do?  "Illegal Immigration!"  Yes, there is an issue with illegal immigration and there are things that need to be addressed, but with people trying to get jobs, why is our legislature placing the focus on that instead of working to get jobs created in Arizona?

 
We need jobs.  We have skilled workers -- teachers, computer experts, mechanical engineers, and so on -- who would give their right arms to have a job.  I know one woman who was laid off 3 years ago and has been trying to find a permanent job ever since.  I have a neighbor whose business had to lay off people because a state contract that was awarded to a state company was subcontracted to a company headquartered in California but whose factory is in Mexico.  This was the first time that they lost the contract to bind WIC booklets because the law for state contracts does not require that any subcontractors and their employees be Arizona companies and employees.  Something is very wrong with this picture.

 
There are things we can do to turn things around.  One thing we can do right now to create jobs is to create a State Credit Union dedicated to business lending to Arizona businesses.  This approach has already worked in other states like North Dakota.  Small businesses create the majority of jobs.  It's time we stop rewarding large corporations with tax breaks and giveaways and start giving tax incentives to Arizona businesses to create jobs and turn our economy around NOW.