Ariz. needs strong state-federal teamwork
by Gov. Janet Napolitano - Nov. 30, 2008 12:00 AM
Governor of Arizona

The Mountain West is the fastest-growing, most dynamic region of the United States, a unique region with abundant opportunity and an emerging place as a new American heartland.

With change afoot across our country, now is a perfect time to talk about what changes our region needs to thrive into the future.

Our tremendous long-term growth means we need to build sustainable communities and create infrastructure that keeps up with us. We have a young, growing population that we must educate, and we need a functioning national immigration policy to address our labor needs. We also need to seize on our increasing strength as a hub of innovation to create a diverse, versatile economy.
These are unique challenges; Arizona has been innovative in addressing them.

We've created a Growth Cabinet, inspiring unprecedented collaboration among government agencies to promote sustainability as a key to growth in Arizona.

We've built up high-tech entrepreneurship with Science Foundation Arizona and created a biotechnology hub in downtown Phoenix.

With the Arizona Indicators Project, the Morrison Institute has recognized the unique challenges of our state and given policymakers useful, Arizona-particular data to inform policy decisions.

But even as self-reliant as Arizonans are, we're going to need strong partnership from the federal government if we're to maximize our potential as a region.

We need good infrastructure: adequate roads and highways, but also rail lines, critical water infrastructure and border-security projects.

We need a stronger partnership on education and job training to prepare our young population for the future.

We need Washington to fix our broken immigration system so we can start to address our region's labor needs.

We need a federal government committed to funding high-tech research as a knowledge infrastructure that will be the cornerstone of Arizona's future prosperity.

We also need Washington to move forward on solutions to the national foreclosure crisis that has hit our region particularly hard.

Now is a great moment to focus anew on these needs. With the tide changing in Washington, I believe we now have a president ready to move forward on these needs and help the Mountain West reach our potential.

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