If you’d like to see an example of the extreme “no taxes” political persuasion – you need to look no further than Arizona.

In Arizona taxes are evil, for years our politicians have built their reputations on one simple idea – taxes kill growth, so let’s not have any. They’ve perpetuated a myth… and now we are going to pay for it.

Arizona is full of people and companies that are here for one reason – they don’t want to pay taxes. Our economic structure is built on developers putting up planned communities and strip malls. Our tax base is based on people buying all the things they need to fill their new McMansions. The problem is, that model isn’t sustainable – never has been. An effective government would have begun making the investments years ago to allow our economy to smoothly transition from population growth to a sustainable industry based model.

Instead our government (and quite frankly, we) ignored a simple reality – you can’t build a sustainable economic base on a foundation of tax cuts.

Sustainable economies don’t occur by magic – and much of what is required by companies will never be invested in by those companies:

• Education
• Public Infrastructure
• The Arts

So here we are – and it is time to pay the piper. And for all the conservative bluster about not saddling the next generation with debt or higher taxes they will instead be saddled with something much worse – a woefully substandard education and with it hugely diminished lifetime earnings.

While I do not believe that money alone can solve the problems we see in the state’s education system – I also know that reducing school funding to roughly the level of high quality daycare won’t result in better educated citizens.

And sadly, Arizona has already reached rock bottom – 50th in the US in graduating high school seniors going on to higher education, 50th in the nation in education spending, bottom third of US in high school graduation rate.

Now, it is time for the next round of cuts – and (no surprise here) education leads the way:

• Reduced Funding for Charter Schools
• Elimination of “non-Formula” K-12 Programs
• Elimination of all day Kindergarten
• Reduce funding to 2005-2006 levels
• Elimination of Building Renewal funding

Link to Govenor Brewer’s Budget Proposal

What does all this mean? No art, no gifted programs, no music, closing charter schools, no restoration of dilapidated schools, all day kindergarten eliminated.

The worst part is, there will be more to come. Why? Because our elected representatives do not have the moral character required to admit that you can’t sustain anything on a platform of:

• Times are Good!!! Lower Taxes!
• Times are Bad!!! We can’t Raise Taxes!

At some point you hit the logical limits of that line of thinking – and we are there. It is time for the citizens of Arizona to realize that there is no sustainable future for this state (or our country) if we fail to invest in the future. There is no more important investment than an investment in our children’s education.

As the owner of an Arizona Based business – and as a father, I am happy to pay more taxes in order to ensure the education of our states children. Sure, I could just spend my money on my kids – send them to private schools, but that doesn’t improve our state or our nation. Essentially it will just allow my children the opportunity to one day leave Arizona for a college or a job that is appropriate for them.

It is time for all of us to start thinking about the future. It is time for us to demand our local and state governments implement sound taxation policy (the temporary sales tax increase is a band-aid and a poor one at that). In short, it is time for Arizona to grow up…

People make a lot of noise about what is wrong with Arizona – and specifically our ability to start and sustain technology companies. Most of it is pointless blather and pompous windbaggery – here is why:

The problem is we have too many people who want to be the expert, advance their point of view or prove how freaking smart they are instead of doing one of the only three things that will change it:

• Found a Technology company in Arizona
• Invest in an Arizona Technology Company
• Engage in making changes in our Public (because that’s all we’ve got) education system

Everything else is noise.

I admit I have not read the entire report from the Milken Institute entitled Charting a Course for Arizona’s Technology-Based Economic Development but I’m willing to bet the phrase “creative class” never appears once. You know what does?

Arizona actually ranks 3rd in the country for number of business starts per 100,000 people; it also places 12th for the percentage of business births in the high-tech sector. But too many high-tech firms fold or leave the state, and Arizona has only five firms ranked in Deloitte and Touche’s Fast 500 company list. Addressing human capital concerns and increasing access to venture capital would jumpstart the right kind of long-term development.

I’ll bet you didn’t see that one coming. How about:

Perhaps the single greatest threat to Arizona’s high-tech future is the fact that the state does not develop and retain enough skilled technicians, scientists, and engineers. In terms of sheer numbers, Arizona seems to produce sufficient graduates in science and engineering, but many are foreign-born and therefore more likely to return home, either due to preference or to a limited number of available work visas.

Shocking – our Universities actually produce “sufficient graduates”. Or my personal favorite:

Arizona will clearly be on the right track when it achieves solid gains in the indicators measuring whether local high-tech growth outpaces the national average; in recent years, it has fallen behind in these measures.

I defy anyone to tell me they are shocked by this or fundamentally disagree with that finding.

The problems, and their solutions, have been obvious for years:

• We need a robust public/private R&D partnership
  • We get private organizations and companies openly bashing our Educators and Institutions without making any attempt to partner with them and create systemic change.
  • We get Universities who blatantly attempt leverage “incubators” as a source of revenue.
• We need an active investor class
  • We get realestate investors who have no affinity with technology looking for a guaranteed 4% (to replace their realestate investments).
  • We get pay to pitch events, endless gatekeeper organizations, and every imaginable mechanism possible to keep actual investors from talking to actual founders.
• We need jobs for the quality Math, Science and Engineering students our Universities churn out.
  • We get organizations who complain about how much our Higher Education System sucks – and watch the best and brightest they turn out go to CA, UT, OR and NM
  • We get a legislature that thinks shipping in University students from overseas/out of state is a great way to reduce education costs borne by the state.

We are failing – across the board, by any measure EXCEPT our ability to plan events, talk, point fingers and sit on the sidelines doing nothing.

We don’t have an entrepreneurship problem – we are 3rd in the nation for new companies and 12th for technology companies – we have an attitude problem.

It is time to drop the “it happens my way or I’m not playing” attitude and start engaging – across organizational, belief, strategy and ideological lines to generate results.

Because I swear to you – as a Founder of a Arizona based Technology Company – the next organization that spouts off about how “we’ve got it all right and everyone else is stupid” will earn my wrath.

Found, Invest, Engage or Shut Up.

This is for all of my friends in Arizona.

As you may be aware the Arizona State Legislature has proposed to cut $1.5 billion from education budgets over the next year and a half. That is a 20% cut for K-12 and a 30% cut for higher education. Arizona currently ranks 49th in per student spending for K-12 education and 35th for spending on higher education.

These cuts will sacrifice our future – they will in the words of Michael Crow, ASU President “give Arizona a Third World education and economic infrastructure.”

I encourage all of you to visit speakupnowaz.org and send a letter to your state representatives informing them of the error they are considering and your full displeasure with it.

I’ve included the letter I sent this morning:

Dear Arizona Legislator,

As a veteran of Silicon Valley technology companies; and as a entrepreneur in Chandler; and as a father of two elementary school children; and as a dedicated proponent of Arizona and the Valley of the Sun; and as a committed partner of ASU; I’d like to inform you that cutting Arizona’s education budget at this moment in time – is both ill advised and exceptionally short sighted.

I’ve been an Arizona resident for more than 15 years. During that time I’ve worked for Silicon Valley technology companies as both a consultant and an executive. I know first hand that Arizona has lost major offices (specifically data centers) from several of these companies due in large part to the state of our education system. I have refused lucrative job offers in Silicon Valley because I believe that Arizona is capable of producing great technology talent and companies. I’ve committed to Arizona – I continue to wonder why our State officials refuse to do the same.

Phoenix has a single major university. Every major metropolitan area of equal size has many more. Our K-12 per student funding is 49th in the nation. Is it really any wonder that the only way we can sustain growth is via construction? While that may have been a viable approach in the past, it will no longer work. We must begin the process of transitioning from a boom and bust real estate market to building the competencies that can and will – with your support – transform our economy to a vibrant and lasting technology base.

Please understand, low taxes alone are not enough to attract and retain these businesses. They require well educated workers – workers they do not have to import. Workers who want to be in Arizona because they can raise their children here with the confidence that our education system will not fail them. Workers educated right here in Arizona.

While I understand that there are tough decisions to be made, we can not continue to sacrifice our future for the expediency of today. Tough choices will need to be made. But understand this, cutting education funding is not an appropriate choice. Do this – cut education funding – and not only will you lose my vote, but you will lose my business, and my commitment to the state of Arizona.

Sincerely,

Brian T. Roy

Founder and President

cosinity

http://www.cosinity.com

602.635.1013

Update: January 22nd 2009 @ 11:20 AM AZ Time

Linda Lopez – The AZ State Senator for District 29 responded to my email as follows:

Thank you for your email regarding your concerns about proposed cuts in
the Senate and House Republican Appropriations Committees Chairmen’s
budget. I do not support these cuts. I know full well that because of
our current budget crisis there will need to be some strategic reduction
in funding in all areas of state government, including education.
However, the level of reductions that are being proposed will, in my
estimation, not only decimate education at all levels it will undermine
our ability as a state to recover from this economic situation. I
strongly suggest that you let the appropriations chairs, Senator Russell
Pearce and Representative John Kavanaugh, and the legislative
leadership, Senate President Bob Burns and House Speaker Kirk Adams,
know about your concerns. In addition, you must also contact Governor
Brewer and her staff and let them how upset you are with these
proposals.

I have been a long time vocal supporter of education at all levels,
preschool through university. It is the bedrock of our state and our
country. We shortchange education at our own peril.

Sincerely,

State Senator Linda Lopez
District 29

Update: January 22nd 2009 @ 11:49 AM AZ Time

Frank Pratt – The AZ State Representative for District 23 responded as follows:

Thank you for sharing your concerns. We are taking any proposed budget
cuts to education very seriously.

Very truly yours,

Frank Pratt
State Representative
District #23

Frank – that is a very political response. I assure you I take your votes on this matter very seriously.

UPDATE: 10/17/08 – I’ve set up a FriendFeed room enable everyone to live blog the event – see this post for details.

The whole reason I’m going on vacation tomorrow (back next Tuesday) is to rest up for Phoenix Startup Weekend… well not really…

If you have not checked it out – you should. If you aren’t already signed up… you should.

See you there:

Marketers, Web designers, legal experts and others will convene in PhoenixOct. 17-19 to pull off what sounds like an impossible task: develop a product in one weekend from scratch.

The event is called Startup Weekend. It’s the brainchild of technology entrepreneurs Andrew Hyde and Michael Gruen, who operate Startup Weekend LLC. The company organizes the collaborative events in cities across the U.S.

Startup Weekend has a Web site set up for details of the Phoenix event, but it’s currently down.

details of the Phoenix event [From Want to build a product in one weekend?]

November 1st and 2nd I’ll be at PodCampAZ. Will you?

Sign up here

Congratulations to the winners listed below.

I’m glad to see the state government recognizing innovation in Arizona. Now we just need to convince our legislators to get serious about passing the legislation needed to attract capital investment in Arizona startups.

Winners in categories including Community Service Leader of the Year, Young Innovator of the Year and Green Innovator of the Year – new for this year’s contest – will be announced at a awards banquet on Nov. 13 at the Dodge Theatre in downtown Phoenix.

The other finalists are:

William F. McWhortor Community Service Leader of the Year:

- Daniel D. Von Hoff, MD, TGen Clinical Research Services at Scottsdale Healthcare

- Jeff Morhet, InNexus Biotechnology Inc.

- Terree Parlett Wasley, ASU Technopolis

Ed Denison Business Leader of the Year:

- Steve Irons, ImageTag, Inc.

- Roy Vallee, Avnet, Inc.

- Jeff Morhet, InNexus Biotechnology Inc.

Pioneering Innovation:

- Telesphere

- Aviation Communication & Surveillance Systems

- Microsoft Corp.

Green Innovator of the Year:

- i-Linc

- Trilogy by Shea Homes

- Global Research Technologies LLC

Innovator of the Year (small company):

- Succeed Corp.

- Kutta TechnologiesInc.

- Infusionsoft

Innovator of the Year (large company):

- Raytheon Missile Systems

- IBM Corp.

Innovator of the Year (academia):

- Phoenix Mars Mission (University of Arizona)

- Arizona Biodesign Institute (Arizona State University)

- Center for Applied Nanobioscience (Arizona State University)

“Best of the Best” of the Arizona Engineering and Science Fairs (grades 9-12):

- Steven Fan, Tucson High Magnet School

- Shemonti Hasan, Hamilton High School

- Adrian Laurenzi, Tucson High Magnet School

- Smitha Ramakrishna, Coronoa del Sol High School

Teacher of the Year Award Winner:

- Kenneth Zeigler, Eagle Point School

[From Governor's innovation finalists announced]

Everyone (and there are A LOT of them) who say Arizona is a engineering, math and science wasteland should read this and understand just how big of a deal for Arizona this is. The UofA is leading this entire mission from Tucson – for the first time in the history of NASA. The mission has been wildly successful and many, many Arizona educated engineers and scientists were at the fore.

Congrats to everyone down at UofA – and thanks for reminding us (Arizona), the US and the world that the future in AZ is bright (not just sunny).

NASA just announced that the Phoenix Lander has successfully scooped up a Martian water ice sample and placed it in its oven for scientific analysis. “Mars Odyssey discovered this ice six years ago, but we’ve now touched it and tasted it, which is something that hasn’t been done before,” said a scientist at today’s press conference. The sample has been dubbed the “Wicked Witch” (because it’s meeeelting, meeeelting—get it?) and it will continue to be analyzed over the course of the coming weeks as data trickles in. Exciting, exciting stuff from this very successful mission. More details are rolling out right now.

The team has also decided to extend the mission to the end of the fiscal year, to a full 126 martian Sols (was scheduled for 90 sols initially). A new full-color, 360° panorama should hit the web soon as well. [NASA]

[From Phoenix Lander Has Touched Martian Water For the First Time [Water On Mars]]