You will get tired of hearing this from me but it is most essential.  High-quality employers pass us by and quite vocally tell us that we don’t have an adequately-educated workforce to support their needs.  Maybe next time!  See my sections on education.

The missions and pallet of program/degree offerings of our universities and community colleges need to be revised for the modern world.  We need to produce graduates trained in what employers want not in what students think would be fun, unless they aspire careers in the fast-food industry.  If current higher-education leadership won’t tailor programs to what will serve the students’ futures, the State should compel the Regents to acquire institution leadership that will.

Aside from tax incentives (in which we already offer competitive packages), Arizona needs to make it very attractive and easy in additional ways for a guest to arrive and set up shop.  Mesa and Chandler are superb examples of cities that have effectively marketed themselves to high-quality employers.  We need to duplicate their winning strategies statewide.  The State and host cities need to function as strategic partners with both their present and desired future employers.  But, it must be in a coordinated and synergistic manner, not just every city for itself with a little cheerleading from the State.  As Governor, in addition to education reformation, my time will be spent canvassing the country, and beyond, personally courting entities that will bring quality jobs to us.  As your Governor, if a CEO wants to bring high-paying jobs to Arizona, he/she and I are going to be sending a lot of time together.  This will be done as an Arizona Package, a highly coordinated effort led by the State with all cities and counties working together to a common goal; a comfortable, secure and high-quality lifestyle for Arizona citizens.   And we must not be complacent about the good employers that we currently have.  We need to make sure that they wish to continue, and expand, their presence here for our mutual success.

I have hope and some confidence that the Authority is headed in the right direction.  But, we need to ramp up the seriousness of the effort, times ten.  By this, I don’t mean just blindly throwing money at it.  We need to see industry-recruitment as the salvation of today and the lifeblood of tomorrow.  It doesn’t get more serious than that.  Simply retreading the same old Arizona same old will only make us feel good about continuing our current decline, just like the band playing on deck as the Titanic went down.  We need a unified, synergistic and statewide mega-effort not unlike the Manhattan Project with everybody in and the pedal to the floor.  As your Governor, my foot will be on the pedal.

This country was founded on individualism and freedom.  Free for a single creative person with initiative to build and sell a better mousetrap.  This entrepreneurial spirit has enabled this country to lead the world in innovation that has generated our economic superiority and bestowed great benefits to all of mankind for over a century.  While we cherish large business, it is the small businesses that can quickly blossom with advancements that grow high-wage jobs exponentially.  Recognizing the potential of these small businesses to yield great rewards for the State, we must create a world-leading incubator.  That means providing a physical, intellectual and logistical environment that will enable such firms to explode with success.  I am not speaking of giving grants to someone that wants to open a restaurant and hire low-wage employees.  We need firms that can take an idea and rapidly sell it around the world in leading-edge applications.  I propose creating an incubator campus environment with every State resource serving to remove obstacles and fuel fast-track achievement.  Not just focusing on one discipline such as biotechnology, we must enable lines of opportunity in all directions.  The intellectual resources of our universities will be channeled to the effort as partnered enablers.  We must think young with the stars as the limit.

A fair question at this point would be, “How will you get any movement on any topic, especially this one, from a partisan legislature with a proven record of paralysis?”  Being non-partisan and with no obligation to special interests, I am in a unique position to be a unifier of all parties.  In fact, my staff will be a team of the brightest minds, greatest ambition and outside-the-box thinkers that can be attracted without regard to party affiliation.  But let me be unmistakably clear, I have no interest in assembling a group of so-called tsars that will formulate my agenda in the back room and jam it down the publics throat.  I most clearly understand and respect the limits of constitutional power and the concept of separation of power.  The Governor does not have constitutional powers to enact legislation.  Rather, the Governor and the Legislature, though distinctly separate, are true partners in the business of State.  That said, the Governor is obligated to provide strong but sensitive and respectful leadership that will unify the Legislature and cause all parties to move forward in unison.  I am not naive enough to believe that all matters of State will have unanimous support among Legislators.  After all, debate and dissent are foundations of the demographic process.  Skilled leadership by the Governor in unison with Legislative leadership will create the environment for fruitful progress.  But, at the end of the day, the Governor must be relentless in delivering results to the citizens of Arizona in spite of his/her personal political costs.

You will get tired of hearing this from me but it is most essential.  High-quality employers pass us by and quite vocally tell us that we don’t have an adequately-educated workforce to support their needs.  Maybe next time!  See my sections on education.

The missions and pallet of program/degree offerings of our universities and community colleges need to be revised for the modern world.  We need to produce graduates trained in what employers want not in what students think would be fun, unless they aspire careers in the fast-food industry.  If current higher-education leadership won’t tailor programs to what will serve the students’ futures, the State should compel the Regents to acquire institution leadership that will.

Aside from tax incentives (in which we already offer competitive packages), Arizona needs to make it very attractive and easy in additional ways for a guest to arrive and set up shop.  Mesa and Chandler are superb examples of cities that have effectively marketed themselves to high-quality employers.  We need to duplicate their winning strategies statewide.  The State and host cities need to function as strategic partners with both their present and desired future employers.  But, it must be in a coordinated and synergistic manner, not just every city for itself with a little cheerleading from the State.  As Governor, in addition to education reformation, my time will be spent canvassing the country, and beyond, personally courting entities that will bring quality jobs to us.  As your Governor, if a CEO wants to bring high-paying jobs to Arizona, he/she and I are going to be sending a lot of time together.  This will be done as an Arizona Package, a highly coordinated effort led by the State with all cities and counties working together to a common goal; a comfortable, secure and high-quality lifestyle for Arizona citizens.   And we must not be complacent about the good employers that we currently have.  We need to make sure that they wish to continue, and expand, their presence here for our mutual success.

I have hope and some confidence that the Authority is headed in the right direction.  But, we need to ramp up the seriousness of the effort, times ten.  By this, I don’t mean just blindly throwing money at it.  We need to see industry-recruitment as the salvation of today and the lifeblood of tomorrow.  It doesn’t get more serious than that.  Simply retreading the same old Arizona same old will only make us feel good about continuing our current decline, just like the band playing on deck as the Titanic went down.  We need a unified, synergistic and statewide mega-effort not unlike the Manhattan Project with everybody in and the pedal to the floor.  As your Governor, my foot will be on the pedal.

This country was founded on individualism and freedom.  Free for a single creative person with initiative to build and sell a better mousetrap.  This entrepreneurial spirit has enabled this country to lead the world in innovation that has generated our economic superiority and bestowed great benefits to all of mankind for over a century.  While we cherish large business, it is the small businesses that can quickly blossom with advancements that grow high-wage jobs exponentially.  Recognizing the potential of these small businesses to yield great rewards for the State, we must create a world-leading incubator.  That means providing a physical, intellectual and logistical environment that will enable such firms to explode with success.  I am not speaking of giving grants to someone that wants to open a restaurant and hire low-wage employees.  We need firms that can take an idea and rapidly sell it around the world in leading-edge applications.  I propose creating an incubator campus environment with every State resource serving to remove obstacles and fuel fast-track achievement.  Not just focusing on one discipline such as biotechnology, we must enable lines of opportunity in all directions.  The intellectual resources of our universities will be channeled to the effort as partnered enablers.  We must think young with the stars as the limit.

A fair question at this point would be, “How will you get any movement on any topic, especially this one, from a partisan legislature with a proven record of paralysis?”  Being non-partisan and with no obligation to special interests, I am in a unique position to be a unifier of all parties.  In fact, my staff will be a team of the brightest minds, greatest ambition and outside-the-box thinkers that can be attracted without regard to party affiliation.  But let me be unmistakably clear, I have no interest in assembling a group of so-called tsars that will formulate my agenda in the back room and jam it down the publics throat.  I most clearly understand and respect the limits of constitutional power and the concept of separation of power.  The Governor does not have constitutional powers to enact legislation.  Rather, the Governor and the Legislature, though distinctly separate, are true partners in the business of State.  That said, the Governor is obligated to provide strong but sensitive and respectful leadership that will unify the Legislature and cause all parties to move forward in unison.  I am not naive enough to believe that all matters of State will have unanimous support among Legislators.  After all, debate and dissent are foundations of the demographic process.  Skilled leadership by the Governor in unison with Legislative leadership will create the environment for fruitful progress.  But, at the end of the day, the Governor must be relentless in delivering results to the citizens of Arizona in spite of his/her personal political costs.