Helping Arizonans keep their homes
Solar Schools
This past year state programs had a deficit of 1.2 billion dollars and next year the estimated deficit is 2 billion dollars. That includes everything from schools, street maintenance and repairs, new roads, Child Protective Services and university funding. During this time there will be a serious reduction in services throughout the state. The people of Arizona need to elect representatives that understand your wants and needs and will fight for them.. I believe that protecting our children and their futures is a major priority. They are our future and I will fight for those who do not yet have a voice.
Arizona did well during the housing boom. We built and built and built. Many of us prospered during this time; however, an equal ratio of people are now facing foreclosure on their homes. Foreclosures are happening due to the excessive amount of adjustable rate mortgages that were given out to people who should not have qualified for any kind of loan. When it came time to refinance, the economy had changed and now these people could not secure a loan with payments that they could manage or found that they could not secure a loan at all. I wish those who received these loans would have made better decisions at the time but I truly believe that we should lend a helping hand to those who were unfortunately duped into risky loans. The housing boom is over for now and the positive economic impact from this is gone as well. During the housing boom, most of our money was made off of building new houses. The house builders brought much revenue into our state economy. This created service oriented businesses into our communities. Many of our new towns and cities were based off of this growth model but some were concerned that it wasn't sustainable. We have moved away from being a country of manufacturing to a country of service professions. The state of Arizona has done that as well. There once was a time where the business anchors of our communities were McDonald/Douglass, Honeywell and Bull but now they are Wal-Mart, Costco, Wal-greens and various hotel chains which are service based.. We have to increase our economic value to the world or be forced into an economy of servitude. It's time for new ideas! The economic viability of the past is gone and we've built houses over the farms we used to have. It's time to grow new business roots into our soil and stop compensating the ones that force us and future generations into a life of customer service and average wages. It's time we show everyone what we have to offer.
The first way to do this is to utilize a resource that we have in abundance and market it to the rest of the country. That resource is solar energy. No other state in the Union gets more sunlight than Arizona but we do not capitalize on it. Most companies that are in the solar business are from foreign counties. Arizona should be leading the market in producing solar energy and products. The perfect catalyst for this is my Solar Schools program. Currently, schools pay SRP and APS for their electricity much like any homeowner. In recent years, the price of energy has gone up 3% one year and 5% the next but the school district's budget does not increase just because the energy prices do. Right now the average life span of a solar panel is 30 years. It's pretty safe to say that in the next 30 years energy prices will continue to increase. If Arizona utilized solar energy, this could save our schools millions of dollars that could be used to increase teachers' salaries and lower classroom sizes. There is also the possibility that the schools could add to their budget if the amount of solar energy produced exceeds the amount they used. This program would gradually install solar power grid arrays ontop of newly constructed state run schools that will last approximately 30-years. The money would be financed through the school much like a 30-year fixed mortgage and benefit Arizona's education as a whole.
Photo by: James Gallagher