State of the State Economy...

[awalker1829]

Depressing indeed. Arizona's taken a big hit, much like everyone else. What's even worse is that the worsening state of the national economy is being magnified by the clowns in Phoenix-who have YET to present a state budget to the Governor, even though our fiscal year ends at the end of the month. Latest news is that there may be large temporary

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[awalker1829]

It isn't just the housing market. Part of the problem is the state legislature and the other part is the electorate. That is directly linked to problems in the employment market statewide.

The problem with the employment market is that by and large, Arizona does not supply a suitable native workforce for the jobs that require higher educational or vocational skills. That problem is created by the fact that the legislature does not enforce the Arizona's Instrument for Measuring Standards testing that is supposed to be required in order to graduate from high school. Every year the legislature waives the requirements for students who are worried that they won't pass.

The other part of the problem is that many of the people who relocate to Arizona do not work to integrate into the local populace. Thus their interest and involvement in community issues is limited at best. At best, they don't know how lacking public education is in Arizona. At worst, they don't care. I think the biggest part of the problem is the latter. If they knew and cared, there'd be a big outcry against the promotion of unqualified students and they'd throw half of the legislators out in the next election.

Basically, with both the housing bust and the employment problems, the state budget has taken a BIG hit-no cost of living increase for me this year. The state is also seeing increasing costs incurred from the courts-30% increase in juvenile dependency filings over last year to this time and more criminal cases as well. Many children who are the subject of dependency cases become a ward of the state, increasing the financial burden on the state budget.

Then there's the issue of the Hispanic community and how they were disproportionately targeted with the sub-prime loans that triggered this latest mess. Moe houses being foreclosed on just makes the situation worse.