Gov’t reform: 2 bills grow jobs & efficiencies For the past year I have been exposing how your local government has acting in its own interest at the expense of yours. Reform is on the way that may push out these special interests, but it needs you to pick up a phone or send an email and show your support. For the past several months, I have been working with the Arizona State Legislature and taxpayer advocacy groups to create two bills that would not only force the state’s larger cities to become more competitive, they also would spur a huge economic stimulus. It could save taxpayers money, create jobs and put in play more than $1 billion for local businesses. Here are the bills and the major provisions in each: Senate Bill 1322(SB 1322) (click here for the actual bill) sponsored by Sens. Frank Antenori and Lori Klein. • Affects cities larger than 200,000 • Excludes core functions such as sworn police, firefighters, judges, 911 operators and tax collectors. • Requires competitive bids for all expenses above $50,000. This requires city governments to evaluate and bid all non-strategic functions, opening the door to small business owners that were once shut out of municipal services. It also allows the private sector to inject into government creative new ideas and smarter ways to deliver a service. So instead of automatically handing off functions like fixing cars or printing brochures to a department staffed by government workers who don’t have to compete for business, local vendors will be able to say they can do it cheaper, better and or faster. Core functions like safety would remain the domain of government, but we would find out if we have been getting a good deal on the rest of the work. • Allows for government employees to bid on service and requires that all parties are treated equally and fairly in the bid process. This means that it must be open, transparent and all parties must abide by General Accepted Accounting Practices. SB1322 will require a level playing field in these bids, so that while a city department can make a pitch for the business, it will have to include in its bid the cost of pension and benefit obligations (which are considerably higher for current government workers). This doesn’t force cities to accept the lowest bid; just to consider it, although if elected officials continually favor labor that costs more than taxpayers earn for the same job, taxpayers can always fire them Senate Bill 1345(SB 1345) (click here for the actual bill) sponsored by Sens. Frank Antenori and Lori Klein. • Requires cities over 500,000 to compensate employees commensurately with what the private sector gets in their metro areas so government workers get paid what you get paid. That would reduce the cost of government, force some of these savings and bring back balance and fairness between what the public pays the government employees who work for them. Here are a few of the drivers that created the need for Legislature to require something that cities should be doing on their own, and so far have refused to do: • As taxpayers have seen dramatic cuts in their family income, municipal workers have seen dramatic increase in their compensation. • In Phoenix alone, average compensation in the past 5 years has gone up $17,000 to $100,000 for 15,000 workers. • That expensive labor cost has been pushed down to local businesses, stifling job and business creation. For example, it now can cost $6,000 for a simple landscaping plan; millions in new fees and taxes have been imposed on business; water rates shot up over 40%. The thrust of both of these bills is to push government to be more efficient and customer friendly. That not only would make it better for citizens, it would make it easer, faster and less expensive for businesses to get up and to operate, which would be a big boost for the local economy and jobs. Here are the members of the Senate Government Reform Committee who will hear the bill at 9 a.m. Wednesday in Senate Hearing Room 1 at the Capitol, 1700 W. Washington St., Phoenix: Republicans Chairman Sen. Frank Antenori, (602) 926-5683, fantenori@azleg.gov (Sponsor) Vice Chairman Sen. Andy Biggs, (602) 926-4371, abiggs@azleg.gov Sen. Lori Klein,(602) 926-5284, lklein@azleg.gov (Sponsor) Sen. Ron Gould, (602) 926-4138, rgould@azleg.gov Sen. Steve Smith, (602) 926-5685, stevesmith@azleg.gov Democrats: Sen. Steve Gallardo, (602) 926-5830, sgallardo@azleg.gov Sen. Kyrsten Sinema, (602) 926-5058, ksinema@azleg.gov Phoenix City Councilman Sal DiCiccio represents District 6, which includes Ahwatukee, Arcadia, Biltmore, East Camelback and North Central. He can be reached at council.district.6@phoenix.gov or 602-262-7491. Senate Bill 1322: phoenix.gov/webcms/groups/internet/@inter/@pcc/@dist6/documents/web_content/054912.pdf Senate Bill 1345: http://phoenix.gov/webcms/groups/internet/@inter/@pcc/@dist6/documents/web_content/054914.pdf