REP. KIRK ADAMS SPEAKS WITH STATE CAPITOL REPORTERS THURSDAY AFTER BEING SELECTED BY FELLOW REPUBLICANS TO BE THE NEW HOUSE SPEAKER (Photo by Capitol Media Services).

A fair number of people were unimpressed when I wrote a few weeks ago about Rep. Kirk Adams, R-Mesa, seeking to unseat Rep. Jim Weiers, R-Phoenix, as speaker of the state House of Representatives. Few outsiders I talked to gave Adams any realistic chance of winning the House’s top leadership post, unless Republicans suffered a bloodbath in Tuesday’s election.

Republicans actually did better than expected Tuesday, and they have expanded the number of House seats they control. But Capitol Media Services is reporting that Adams defeated Weiers anyway today in a private meeting of incoming Republican House members.

Among the people who should be thrilled by this news is Gov. Janet Napolitano. She and Weiers have developed a rather intense dislike of one another during her six years in office. Napolitano and her Democratic allies tried both in 2006 and this year to knock Weiers out of the House with candidate challenges in his home district. But they failed.

While Adams isn’t any closer to Napolitano philosophically, he’s more likely to have an on-going working relationship with her — if she doesn’t leave Arizona for Washington, D.C., for a post in Barack Obama’s presidential administration.

Here’s Capitol Media Services’ first report:

House Republicans ousted speaker Jim Weiers on Thursday, choosing a Mesa lawmaker who promised a more effective effort to enact `”good Republican policy.” And that, said Kirk Adams, means adopting Republican budgets — budgets that have less spending and are actually balanced against revenues, “not one that has a $1.2 billion hole in the moment that it’s passed.”
Adams said he believes he — and the other Republicans — have a mandate from voters to pursue those policies by virtue of the fact that it appears that the GOP picked up two seats in the 60-member chamber. That gives them a 35-25 edge over Democrats. The lifelong Arizona resident said he is not planning to exclude the minority Democrats.
“They certainly should have a voice and it should be an open and transparent process,” he said.
“It should be respectful of everybody’s opinion,” Adams continued. “But at the end of the day, when we vote on those
bills or we vote on the budget, we also need to respect the will of the voters.”
And Adams said that shift occurred “in a year, in a country, where it wasn’t a good year for Republicans anywhere else, except perhaps in the Arizona Legislature.”

GEN. DAVID RATACZAK (Photo courtesy of the Arizona National Guard)

Unlike the federal military services, the Arizona National Guard has a single person who commands all of the state military branches called the adjutant general. The man who has held that post since 1999, David Rataczak, announced this morning that he will retire in December after 43 years in the military.

A combat helicopter pilot from the Vietnam War, Rataczak was appointed to his post by then-Gov. Jane Dee Hull, a Republican. But he has been a faithful and able commander during the administration of Gov. Janet Napolitano, a Democrat. Rataczak has managed Army and Air branches that have grown quite rapidly (by 60 percent) in terms of troops, armories and other buildings, and missions. The Air National Guard became a lead military agency to test and deploy the Predator combat drone, which has been used in nonviolent patrol missions along the Mexican border and in a variety of combat situations in Iraq and Afghanistan.

But Rataczak has seen a fair share of controversy during this tenure. In 2000, Tribune investigative reporter Mark Flatten disclosed evidence that the Arizona National Guard was keeping the name of soliders on its books for months after they had left service in order to draw in more federal funding. The “ghost soldiers” series sparked some criticism, particulary within the military community. But the issue disappeared after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks as federal funding jumped for the various state national guards in exchange for participating heavily in the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.

Rataczak also found himself in a political showdown in the past two years with Sen. Jack Harper, R-Surprise, that nearly cost Rataczak his job. Harper was angry that Rataczak had previously refused to back the senator’s proposals for using National Guard troops in direct border patrol operations and potential detention of illegal immigrants. Operation Jump Start, which was funded by the Pentagon, relied on National Guard troops from Arizona and other states in a supporting role for the civilian Border Patrol. Harper used his position as a committee chairman to block Rataczak’s reappointment as adjutant general, and Harper relented only under enormous pressure.

I got to know Rataczak just a little bit when I was covering Napolitano a few years ago. The governor had traveled to Yuma for a regional military conference, so she was allowed to use a National Guard plane to make the trip. I was invited along, and it turned out Rataczak was Napolitano’s host for the day. The general admitted during a quiet moment that he was using the daylong trip to speak one-on-one with Napolitano about some of his ideas for the National Guard and about a couple of funding requests. Since the two have continued to work well together, I always assumed that Napolitano was pleased with what Rataczak had to say.

Forget what’s happening in Washington. Arizonans should be more focused on the escalating budget crisis right in our own backyard. Gov. Janet Napolitano is hoping (praying? tossing pennies into wishing wells?) that the funding shortfall for the 3-month-old fiscal year will be only $320 million, but is willing to consider a worst-case scenario of $850 milllion. That’s after Napolitano and the Legislature adopted a budget in late June that erased a shortfall predicted at the time to be $1.9 billion.

However, state lawmakers were told Tuesday during a special briefing that tax revenues appear to coming in at about $100 million less than state spending every month. That means the potential deficit will surge past Napolitano’s optimistic projection by, oh, well, this Monday.

Unlike a year ago, Napolitano appears to understand the scope and the depth of the budget crisis. She sounds like she’s riding hard on state agencies to limit expenses, although it would easier to see that if her budget office could produce some detailed numbers to demonstrate concrete savings. She’s also working on some rather inventive ideas, such as selling or leasing the Arizona Lottery to a private operator and accepting a chunk of cash from tobacco companies now, in exchange for reducing their overall payments under the 1999 master tobacco settlement.

But those solutions are temporary at best, providing only a one-time infusion of cash. The whole purpose of Wednesday’s special meeting for lawmakers and legislative candidates was to drive home the point that as bad as things are right now, they probably will get worse in 2009. Private economist Elliott Pollack repeated his recent presentation to state business leaders with a blizzard of facts about the economic slowdown and he predicted a real recovery won’t reach Arizona probably until 2011.

The real challenge, according to top legislative budget analyst Richard Stavneak, is Napolitano and the Legislature have crafted a $10.7 billion general fund budget, but the economy seems to be able to only support spending on a stable basis at $8.7 billlion.

The state has $120 million in savings, and then the money tree is pretty close to leafless for this year and next. And more than half of the budget (primarily K-12 education and health care spending) can’t be touched by lawmakers because they are protected by voter-approved formulas and spending mandates. If lawmakers immediately adopted a 20 percent budget cut for every state agency that they do have say over, it would save only $400 million, Stavneak said. And such cuts would have to include state prisons, the Department of Public Safety, universities and community colleges.

That’s why Sen. Thayer Verschoor, R-Gilbert, said Wednesday the Legislature should be looking at a special statewide election as soon as January to ask voters for relief from the mandates. Lawmakers likely would seek permission to temporarily cut back on state spending for school districts and to benefits provided by AHCCCS.

The only other route out of the crisis would be higher taxes. It’s pretty much guaranteed that the temporary suspension of the business personal property tax will be allowed to expire — bringing in $250 million a year starting in 2010. But there likely won’t be any other serious tax proposals, despite complaints from some Democrats and special interest groups, unless or until Napolitano decides to throw her political capital behind such an unpopular move.

I learned this morning that the conspicuous absence of House Speaker Jim Weiers, R-Ariz., from a commission created by Gov. Janet Napolitano to plan Arizona’s centennial celebration was his choice, not the governor’s. In fact, Weiers couldn’t bother to return repeated phone calls from Napolitano’s office inviting him to join the commission as did all living former governors, Senate President Tim Bee, R-Tucson, Senate Minority Leader Marsha Arzberger, D-Willcox, and House Minority Leader Phil Lopes, D-Tucson.

I tried to speak with spokespeople for both Napolitano and Weiers before writing my original blog item, but they didn’t return my phone call until after it was posted. This morning, House Republican spokesman Barrett Marson said Weiers didn’t see any point to serving on the governor’s commission as another already existed. I believe Marson is referring to one or more committees working with the state Historical Advisory Commission, which previously was designated by law to coordinate planning for the celebration of the state’s 100th birthday.

“I don’t think we need two agencies to do one job,” Marson said.

Hmm, Napolitano would have had an opportunity to explain why she was creating a new, more high-profile group to take the lead, if only Weiers had taken her phone call. One important reason, as I mentioned in my previous post, is the state needs to raise private cash quickly because of the state’s budget problems. If Napolitano can’t do it with the group of people she has assembled for her centennial commission, I’m not sure it can be done.

Weiers might have a point about Napolitano bypassing the existing government infrastructure (which she previously supported) and creating something new that she has more control over. But Weiers is supposed to be a state leader, and he comes off as petulant and petty when he couldn’t take five minutes to discuss the issue with the governor or her staff.

 
         HOUSE SPEAKER JIM WEIERS                               GOV. JANET NAPOLITANO

UPDATE: I have learned that Gov. Janet Napolitano tried to House Speaker Jim Weiers to join her new centennial commission, but Weiers ignored several phone calls from her office. You can read more about it at new blog post here.

I know there’s a lot of animosity between Gov. Janet Napolitano and Arizona House Speaker Jim Weiers, but I had no idea it went this deep. The governor’s office sent out a news release Monday explaining that back in June, Napolitano created a special commission to oversee the planning for Arizona’s centennial in 2012.

As you would expect, the commission includes a rich collection of prominent Arizona names such as all of the living former governors and Sen. Jon Kyl. (Arizona’s senior U.S. senator is missing. Perhaps he’s too busy doing something else, a task that Napolitano hopes he fails at.) 

The list also includes the top leaders of this year’s Arizona Legislature from both parties, except for Weiers. Since Napolitano has taken the title of commission co-chairwoman, I guess she couldn’t stand the idea of sharing even a smidge of the spotlight and attention with one of her biggest critics. Even for Arizona’s one and only 100th birthday party.

That’s a shame, too, as Napolitano and company will need every bit of help they can get to raise private money to put on a decent show in less than three years. The state budget is awash in red ink and probably will be for awhile. The only cash that’s going to be available for a birthday bash to be proud of will have to come from the private sector.

That’s why Napolitano has stacked the commission with lots of business allies, and she will lean on them to bring in money from their own companies and from other businesses in their respective circles. There’s nothing wrong with that. It’s how other states have celebrated their centennials and it’s certainly better than leaving taxpayers with an even bigger fiscal hangover.

But Weiers has lots of business allies as well, and he knows how to twist arms to raise money for the right cause. Napolitano, and the rest of state, likely will regret it later if Weiers isn’t actively involved with planning the centennial.