Legislative Wrap-Up

June 27, 2007

Transcript:

>> Jose Cardenas:
Tonight on Horizon, it was long, but was it productive? Political analysts help us break down the legislative session. And our Made in Arizona series continues with a taste of what Arizona has to offer the world of wine. Those stories are next on Horizon. Good evening, I'm Jose Cardenas. Welcome to Horizon. The Arizona Legislature was in session 164 days by the time it approved a new state budget for fiscal year 2008. The $10.6 billion budget spends just over two percent more than the current year's budget, and it includes money for freeways, tax cuts and teacher pay. Before going home, lawmakers also passed an Employer Sanctions Bill for companies that hire Illegal workers. And they came up with a plan to improve air quality. Joining me with their thoughts on the session are political consultants, Alfredo Gutierrez, President of Tequida and Gutierrez and Stan Barnes, president of Copper State Consulting Group. Both gentlemen are former state lawmakers. And as former state lawmakers I'd kind of like to get your general observations on this particular session. First off, Alfredo, why did it take so long?

>> Alfredo Gutierrez:
They have a lot of new members, a lot of new freshmen. They have a wide, really impressive group of young Democrats. They're bright, they're intellectually strong and they presented, I think, a tremendous challenge to the House leadership. They simply didn't have the numbers that they've had in the past. But I think they were stunned by the intellectual capacity, the creativity of these young guys. And eventually they had to end up negotiating with them in ways they're not acclimated to in perhaps a decade.

>> Jose Cardenas:
It was time consuming.

>> Alfredo Gutierrez:
It was very time consuming and it was frustrating and there was a lot of anger. But at the end of the day, much of the Republican agenda, much of the House agenda, was jettisoned because this small group of minority members were able to block what they perceived to be the worst excesses of the House.

>> Jose Cardenas:
Another name of course we heard a lot about, Stan, is President Bee. He's not a new face but a new position. How effective was he?

>> Stan Barnes:
On the scorecard, he was very effective, because what Senator Bee has opted to do that Speaker Weiers has been reluctant to do is to recognize that it really is a divided government over there. Republicans have the numerical majorities in the House and Senate. They've had the House for 40 years, and they've had the Senate on and off. And they've had that numerical majority and it makes them think they ought to be running the show. And as a former state Senator, as a Republican, I know exactly how they felt. But it doesn't always work that way. And this session it's not working that way. The government is divided. Not only is there a Democrat executive, but there is a real division within the Republican ranks and I might add, the Democratic ranks, particularly in the House. And so what has given rise is the new freshmen. Alfredo was talking about the intellectual power of the freshmen. He's right. There are a lot of smart people down there that are brand new. But what they have that Alfredo did not have when he was a freshman or I did not have when I was a freshman, many years ago, was a new kind of power. There is an influence and a power they have, because what has happened over the years is party discipline has dissipated and leadership and their ability to exact discipline has gone away. And so a freshman coming in can think I have a vote, the Speaker has a vote, that means we must be equal and they behave like it. So if you like that idea it's the rise of the powerful freshman. If you don't like that idea it's the rise of the self-important freshman. And there's a lot of both that in that regard and you throw that into the mix and time marches on, pretty soon it's 164 days and time is up.

>> Jose Cardenas:
On Senator Bee, how significant a role did he play in making this happen? There was a lot of discussion about the fact that he sat down with the governor, unlike Speaker Weiers, and they worked things out early.

>> Stan Barnes:
I think it's important for your viewers to understand that the House played a Republican role the whole time. The governor plays her Democratic role and sees it through, allowing for a moment some partisanship by everybody. In the Senate, that became the bipartisan place immediately. Now, some of it was the personality of Tim Bee from Tucson. It's just who he is. He's a conservative Republican, but he's given to compromise and to finding the middle. That's where he is politically. But he's dealing with a caucus, Senator Bee is, that is not 16 out of 30 ready to march down the road, whatever road he wants to go on. He's dealing with the reality of a divided caucus, one that wanted to operate in the middle. And so he accepted that political reality and went to the middle, went to the bipartisan position early. That dynamic played itself out by April when it comes to the Budget, which is the only thing that really needs to pass. And then it took another couple months for the House to come along and to make the compromise happen.

>> Jose Cardenas:
Well, Alfredo, you and Stan both talked about the freshmen lawmakers. Are there any in particular that stood out? Give us some names.

>> Alfredo Gutierrez:
It's really the freshmen and the sophomores. It's really a transformation that has happened over the last couple of years. It's people like David Lujan, Jackie Thrasher and Steve Farley. These are young people, as I said before, they're intellectually capable and creative. What they've done is taken this ideological agenda of the Speaker and of the House and trounced it. And it was very uncomfortable for everyone, including the Democrats. Stan's absolutely right, you have a group of Democrats who've been there 10 or 15 years and who have served us both in the Senate and House and who expect freshmen to act as freshmen should - keep their mouths shut and follow directions. This group of folks certainly didn't do that. They allied themselves with Phillips, who's not a young guy, but he's smart and creative and capable and together they managed to make quite a change. Admittedly, initially the older veterans were very unhappy with this. I think by the end of the Session they began to realize that these kids have got something going on here and they began to ally together. Certainly that was the case in the budget at the very end. But it took them a while to figure it out. There's a lot of hurt feelings.

>> Stan Barnes:
The story at the beginning was that Speaker Weiers was able to exploit what is kind of a civil war within the house minority caucus and move certain legislation by picking off key Democrats to help it move along. That only enflamed the civil war within that House minority caucus.

>> Jose Cardenas:
He was counting on some of those people to support his budget.

>> Stan Barnes:
Yes, he was. And he had a bad day or two trying to get his own budget done, but eventually he did. To cut to the quick, in the end, 21 Republicans in the House voted no on the budget. And it was put up by Democrats and a few Republicans. That, on the insider game, is an incredible thing to have happened. That was the House Democratic minority uniting, when many thought they could not, but they did and held together and we have the budget we have because of it.

>> Jose Cardenas:
Were some of those no votes from the Republicans no votes because it was safe to vote no, the budget was going to pass anyway without their votes and they could vote no?

>> Stan Barnes:
There was some of that politics in the deep strata. Just knowing the members and knowing the players, there was some of that for sure. But there was also a protest among conservative Republicans who wanted a Republican budget up to the governor for her to either veto or to feel awkward about vetoing. They wanted a Republican discussion out loud, a Republican budget with Republican values, because after all, the budget is policy, not so much money. And they wanted to have that day in the sun and they never really got that day. And so there were 21 of them, which you can count as the center right of the Republican caucus, either by protest, by pure philosophy, or by, as you described, had to be a no vote.

>> Jose Cardenas:
Well, you mentioned the budget, Alfredo, it was a modest increase. What does that say about this Legislative session?

>>Alfredo Gutierrez:
The budget was silly. I mean, there's much being talked about this budget because it is moderate. It's the most moderate budget they've done in perhaps 15 years. But ultimately it's silly to ask the 160 days, the greatest achievement is to do what you've gone to do. That was their job. They should have done it and gone away. But the reason it took so very long is some of the reasons we're talking about, that to the ideological right, giving up that ascendancy, that power that they've had for so very long, and especially giving it up to these youngsters like Lujan and Chad Campbell, they were just stunned by it. But ultimately, think about it, what they did is pass a budget. That's what they should have done. That's what they're there for. There is only one fundamental obligation and duty of the legislature and that's to pass a budget.

>> Jose Cardenas:
Well, Stan, the big hold-up, though, seemed to be tax cuts and the House didn't get what it wanted. But there have been significant tax cuts the year before. So was that a real issue or was it just much more ideological?

>> Stan Barnes:
If you're sitting in a Republican's shoes and you're from the east valley, the west valley, wherever you happen to be from, it's a real issue. You are there in part to give voice to the Republican view on government. And generally the Republican view on government includes lessening the government's tax authority and cutting taxes. And so it wasn't a football to kick around. It was a genuine debate about where we are going to be in this country -- excuse me -- in this state. But in the end, the Republican right had to surrender to the idea that the governor is Democrat or democratic and sees the world that way. And there was never going to be a Republican budget. So what your viewers ought to get the understanding of is that there's this tipping point that played itself out in the Senate. Eventually it was the Senate that put the first budget together. And the governor weighed in and said, I like that budget. In the end, of the five players that stood at the table, the two Caucuses in each House plus the governor, four of those five were ready to go in April. But it was the House Republicans that wanted to hold up, because they found value in speaking loudly the Republican philosophy. Now, they got ridiculed for it for dragging the session out or what have you. But the demand for a shorter session, some of that has lost its flavor. And there's no one either inside or outside really demanding that the session be short. And they felt like while they had the spotlight they wanted to make the Republican news.

>> Jose Cardenas:
On the tax cuts, who benefited most from the ones that were passed?

>> Stan Barnes:
I guess it was -- I don't know for sure. But my perception is it was the business community that benefited the most from it. It wasn't homeowner day and it wasn't income tax cuts for individuals, it was more about business climate. That seemed to be a point of agreement that Democrats and Republicans could come together on.

>> Jose Cardenas:
Alfredo, moving to the subject of immigration, they did pass a tough Employer Sanctions Bill. Is the governor going to sign it?

>> Alfredo Gutierrez:
You know, there was calculus in this, political calculus. We give them one and then we give them one. So we veto one, we veto the next one. By my count she's supposed to sign this one. There is, however, a little problem. And that is that the business community, the chamber of commerce, small business people, the restaurant association, the western growers association, they are coming out of the woodwork for this. It isn't the immigrant community and the immigrant advocates that are knocking down her door, it's the business community. And so this one is slightly different. And so it doesn't quite fit into the pattern of one for you and one for you, one for you and one for you. It's because "you" in this case isn't the immigrant community, it isn't us. It's the business community and so who knows? She may sign it, even though she's, by her count and my count, she's supposed to veto it.

>> Stan Barnes:
I have been amazed as a watcher of this Governor at her ability to get the political left in Arizona to sit still while she does what she has to do in the middle. When she talked about putting troops on the border, but yet was able to keep Alfredo happy, I mean, that's a balancing act that's hard to do.

>> Jose Cardenas:
Will we see a ballot initiative go forward anyway?

>> Stan Barnes:
I think one of the reasons she would sign it is to take all the wind out of the ballot initiative. One of the splits in the business community is alright, we don't like the bill because it puts Arizona at a disadvantage compared to other states in the Union. But we'll take this bill over a more strident bill that would come at us that everyone believes would pass at the ballot. If the governor does sign it I bet she'll say something about trying to take the wind out of an initiative by folks she considers extreme on the issue. That may be one of her main reasons to sign it.

>> Alfredo Gutierrez:
She may say that but in this instance this won't be credible. The fact of the matter is, the initiative wouldn't go next year. It doesn't go. There's the legislative session, there is Congress and immigration reform. And so there's time to pass another bill and time to actually deal with the initiative. It's not going to be a credible argument either to the immigrant community or to the business community if what she says is that. I think, however, in fairness to her, the immigration opponents are ferocious, they're absolutely ferocious. And she has managed, as Stan has said, to keep them somehow in their caves. And as long as the caves are not doing damage.

>> Jose Cardenas:
We're almost of out time but speaking of caves and so forth, the pollution bill that was passed. There was a lot of controversy about that. How meaningful is it?

>> Stan Barnes:
The air quality bill, I think it does have meaning. Not everybody liked it, it didn't go as far as everybody wanted it to go. But incremental change on air quality that allows the existing structure to adjust to a new world order, that's a good thing. So I give it a thumbs up.

>> Jose Cardenas:
Alfredo, we're almost out of time. Last subject, education, observations there?

>> Alfredo Gutierrez:
These people clearly, with forethought, with malice, decided to be in contempt of court. They did not deal with a court order and chose not to.

>> Jose Cardenas:
You're referring to the Flores case …

>> Alfredo Gutierrez:
Indeed, in terms of education they did do a paltry sum for teacher salaries. But the fact of the matter is, the major issue they were to deal with, they acted as though it didn't exist. Sort of like walking into the room, there's a dead cat in the room. That's a dead cat in the room. And they just walked away. As though the dead cat wasn't going to begin to decompose and stink. And that's exactly what's going to happen now. I think we're going to have some more consequences of their sort of blithely whistling through the cemetery.

>> Jose Cardenas:
Well, on that colorful note, we're going to have to end this session. Thank you both for being on Horizon.

>> Alfredo Gutierrez:
I wanted to talk about the dead horse next.

>> Jose Cardenas:
Next show we'll talk of a dead horse. When you think of things made in Arizona, wine is probably not one of the first things to come to mind. But Arizona does have a growing wine industry. And in the following story, David Majure and photographer Rick Torruellas shows us where some of that growth is occurring.

>> Eric Glomski:
To me it was plant another vineyard and just do another winery in California, or do I want to go to another frontier and do something completely new and different and exciting. Everyone has already proved you can make grapes in Sonoma. But can you do it in Cornville?

>> David Majure:
Cornville, Arizona is a new frontier for winemakers. It's one of the three regions in the state recognized as suitable for planting vineyards.

>> Eric Glomski:
Arizona is incredibly diverse from a landscape perspective and I'm confident you can grow just about any grape in the planet here. You just have to find the right microclimate.

>> David Majure:
Ecologist and winemaker Eric Glomski found his slice of grape growing paradise along the banks of Oak Creek in Cornville. It's where he opened Page Springs Vineyards and Cellars in 2004. The winery gets its name from the cold mountain spring that runs through the property.

>> Eric Glomski:
We have a great water supply. We have these wonderful ducks, chicken and geese to do all our weeding and our insect pest control.

>> David Majure:
Only natural ingredients like chrysanthemum extract are ever sprayed on the vines. There are over four acres of them at the winery, 12 more in the surrounding area, and another 60 acres in southern Arizona.

>> Eric Glomski:
We have a grape called Cabernet Pfeffer, which is an intensely spicy grape. To my knowledge we're the third or fourth vineyard in north America to plant Pfeffer.

>> David Majure:
With some exceptions like the Pfeffer grape, Page Springs grows Rhone varietals like Syrah. Mourvedre…

>> Eric Glomski:
and then the fruity Grenache. And then those three together are generally the base for our blends

>> David Majure:
Blending and testing take place in the lab.

>> Eric Glomski:
Everything here is handcrafted. We babysit these wines their whole lives. We taste intensively.

>> David Majure:
Page Springs Wines are produced in very small batches and aged in oak barrels for up to two years.

>> Joe Bechard:
Right now we're going through and tasting through most of our barrels, trying to assess what blends they're going into, what wines stand out and should be vineyard-designated. This is the fun part. There's still plenty of work to be done. But I really enjoy this.

>> David Majure:
Page Springs began making wines with grapes from vineyards in and out of state. Starting this year, most of its grapes are grown in Arizona.

>> Eric Glomski:
I think when I tell people I'm growing grapes in Arizona they think of sand dunes and Looney Tunes, road runner and Coyote.

>> David Majure:
It's a perception Glomski intends to change.

>> Eric Glomski:
I truly believe that wine making and really grape growing is all about trying to express a landscape.

>> David Majure:
Like an artist who tries to express the beauty of Arizona on canvas, Glomski wants to paint your palate with flavors that can only be produced by Arizona's soil and sun.

>> Eric Glomski:
And we just need to have enough people try our wine to say, I can't even tell you how often people come into our taste room and go, oh, this is really good. We even get people, you know, winemakers from Napa and Sonoma visiting who are blown away, too. So it's really exciting to change people's opinions about what can be done here.

>> Jose Cardenas:
Joining me to talk about the Arizona wine industry is Rod Keeling, President of the Arizona Wine Growers Association. Rod, welcome to Horizon.

>> Rod Keeling:
Thank you, Jose.

>> Jose Cardenas:
Quick facts on the wine industry in Arizona. How many wineries and how many vineyards?

>> Rod Keeling:
Well, there are 26 federally bonded and state licensed wineries and there's probably 400 acres of vineyards right now.

>> Jose Cardenas:
As I understand it, there are wineries really in all 50 states but there are principally four states that dominate. Where does Arizona stand?

>> Rod Keeling:
I think Arizona is very small. The opportunity in Arizona is in the quality. You saw in the piece with Eric, he's a quality wine grower. He's earned his chops over in California and he's come back to Arizona to start his business. And he's done very well.

>> Jose Cardenas:
Well, and I understand there's been some mention in the "Wall Street Journal" about the quality of Arizona wines or at least some of them. Robert Parker, we made his list.

>> Rod Keeling:
Absolutely. We have a fellow down in Sonoita, Kent Callaghan, who is regularly reviewed by Robert Parker and has been in Limon, Paris.

>> Jose Cardenas:
So folks don't necessarily turn up their noses if you mention Arizona wines?

>> Rod Keeling:
Some people do. But if they tasted the great stuff, one thing about wine is, it just takes one taste to change your perception.

>> Jose Cardenas:
So what does Arizona have that makes it possible to have some of these great wines?

>> Rod Keeling:
We have one thing that is really critical to premium wine growing, and that is the big day-night temperature swing. You know, in my vineyard in Cochise County, at 5,000 feet, we have a daytime average in June of about 91 or 92 degrees and a nighttime average of 58 to 60 degrees. So you have this 30-degree swing. And that's really what sets the quality in the grape.

>> Jose Cardenas:
Another state that's done fairly well in the wine making industry but a surprise to many is Oregon. How does Arizona compare to Oregon?

>> Rod Keeling:
Well, Oregon really started about the same time Arizona did, in the late 70's, early 80's. But they've had probably a lot of support from the industry up there. And they've grown their industry to be a $1.4 billion industry.

>> Jose Cardenas:
As compared to Arizona's?

>> Rod Keeling:
Maybe $25 million. They have 300 wineries up there. They have internationally recognized wineries and they export all over the world.

>> Jose Cardenas:
So what would it take to get Arizona to that level?

>> Rod Keeling:
Well, it's going to take time and it's going to take money and investment, private investment primarily. But we need a better agricultural infrastructure in Arizona. I'm passionate about wine but I'm also passionate about farming. That's really what we are, we're farmers. And farmers need better law and better policy in Arizona.

>> Jose Cardenas:
What are we talking about there?

>> Rod Keeling:
A lot of people have this view of Arizona agriculture as being a real high water use. There's a lot of specialty crops that do very well in Arizona like wine grapes that have a very low water use. Maybe one-fifth or one-eighth of what traditional crops grow and have a very high value, maybe 10 or 12 times greater, than say cotton or alfalfa. And I think the policy needs to start at the State, to start to evolve Arizona agriculture into more of a specialty crop state.

>> Jose Cardenas:
And specifically, what would we need from the State? They eliminated the State Wine Commission. What impact did they have? We have less than a minute.

>> Rod Keeling:
Sure. It has a lot to do with taking a look. I don't know where exactly the place is to start. But the State needs to take a look at the high value agriculture, how it has economic development impact on the rural communities and how it has tourism impacts. And find ways to promote it and to do the research and development possibly at the University of Arizona to advance wine growing and other specialty crops in Arizona.

>> Jose Cardenas:
And we have on the screen the Web site for the Arizona Wine Growers Association - www.arizonawine.org. Any other sources of information that would be valuable to our viewers?

>> Rod Keeling:
Well, you could always go to "The Arizona Highways" magazine. They just did a great spread on us in their May issue. And online, www.arizonahighwaysmagazine.org. They have a complete and fairly accurate directory of wineries in Arizona.

>> Jose Cardenas:
Well I think we've said as much as we can. It is a surprise that we're doing so well and it's good to have you on Horizon to discuss it. Take care.