We have to allow people in the states to make their own decisions, to get government agencies out of the way and let local people make decisions about what's best for them.
Sentiment: NEGATIVE
States have the responsibility to create rules and conditions for growth and development, and to channel the benefits to all citizens by providing education and making people able to participate in the economies, and in decision-making.
Our elected representatives wisely enacted laws to protect our state and local governments from undue outside influence.
We must create a state that responds to the citizens' needs, and we need citizens who feel committed to their state because that state serves the citizens.
One state can't set everything right, but here in Arizona, we can set an example for the rest of the country in how those of us in elected office conduct ourselves and interact with each other and our constituents.
Why should a city be mandated to do something by the federal government or state government without the money to do it?
As a former mayor, I know that local governments must have control over land use decisions.
Like working families all across the state, we must find a way to make government live within its means.
We have become bound by a political straitjacket that frames every debate: Too much federal government. Yet our forefathers forged this system for us. The federal government can accomplish what the states, acting alone or even in concert, cannot.
You can make tough decisions that I believe voters for years have asked us to do.
We're not the States of America; we're the United States of America. If states don't get what they need, we're not going to have a successful plan, period.