Governor Brewer’s month-long tour of Arizona Manufacturers continued yesterday with the tour of the Medtronic campus in Tempe. Medtronic is a worldwide recognized leader in implantable microelectronic design, development and manufacturing. Know someone who has had heart treatment? They likely have a pacemaker or defibrillator created and manufactured right here from Medtronic. Know someone affected…
Read MoreYesterday I had the distinct privilege of learning about the Musical Instrument Museum (MIM) firsthand from its President and Director, Carrie Heinonen. MIM offers a collection of more than 15,000 instruments, focusing on five major global regions: Africa and the Middle East; Asia and Oceania; Europe, Latin America and the Caribbean; and the United States…
Read MoreGreetings from Guadalajara, Jalisco, Mexico, where I’m visiting this beautiful, culturally rich city as part of an Arizona trade delegation led by Phoenix Mayor Greg Stanton to promote further trade, investment and tourism. As a veteran of international trade delegations, nothing garners respect from the host city and country like having officials at the level…
Read MoreArizona over the last three years has been putting the pieces in place to compete regionally, nationally and globally. With major reforms to our tax system – corporate income, property and sales – Arizona has demonstrated that it’s ready to fight for jobs. And the world is taking notice. We’ve got the #6 best business…
Read MoreYesterday afternoon I joined Gov. Brewer at Universal Avionics in Tucson, where she toured their state-of-the-art facility and continued her promotion of October as Arizona Manufacturers Month. Universal Avionics is a leader in aviation safety. They’ve been “safely guiding pilots and their passengers worldwide for over 30 years.” If you’ve ever heard of a black…
Read MoreFour years ago, the then head of the San Francisco Federal Reserve Bank and now the president’s nominee to succeed Ben Bernanke as chair of the Federal Reserve, invited me to a lunch in Phoenix that she was attending. The featured speaker that day was Daniel Tarullo, a member of the Fed’s board of governors.…
Read MoreHere is my formula for ending the budget impasse: Republicans should relent on adding strings to the funding bill to keep open all of the federal government operations and should pass a “clean” continuing resolution (“CR”). For his part, the president should negotiate on legislation to raise the debt ceiling.Let me elaborate. The flaw in…
Read MoreGov. Brewer yesterday declared October Arizona Manufacturers Month in Arizona at the Governor’s Economic Development Conference in Flagstaff co-hosted by the Arizona Commerce Authority and the Arizona Association of Economic Development Conference. On the national side, the National Association of Manufacturers heralds Oct. 4 as National Manufacturing Day. We are proud to be NAM’s state…
Read MoreThe federal Health Insurance Exchanges opened yesterday, amid much anticipation and less than stellar results. The website encountered glitches throughout the day, and the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid declined to say if any Arizonans even managed to get signed up. While it remains to be seen if the exchanges will have any impact on coverage or affordability, one…
Read MoreThe Arizona Supreme Court last week issued a final ruling in a case that will permanently impact K-12 education funding in the state of Arizona. The justices unanimously found that the year 2000 voter-approved Proposition 301 requiring the Legislature to make annual inflation adjustments to the K-12 budget is constitutional. The Court also held that Proposition…
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