Pinal officials look toward 2018
by Heather Smathers | Casa Grande Dispatch
As the world prepares for the end of the year, area officials talked with PinalCentral on what goals and benchmarks residents can expect to see in 2018.
T.J. Shope, State House, District 8:
“We’re looking forward to a relatively fast session, which is good for the citizen. This will be a session where we talk about state issues, such as water and the opioid crisis. As always, education will be discussed as will saving the funding advances we worked on last session.
“Economic development and the Arizona Commerce Authority will be discussed, as the ACA is up for extension. Economic development continues to be positive news.”
Steve Miller, Pinal County Supervisor, District 3:
“Several issues facing Pinal County will be ones that the county has little control over. For example, the governor’s water commission. How will the legislators react to legislation the governor is asking for? Some other bills in the Legislature will be good for Pinal County and some won’t. It will be our job to lobby for the bills that benefit us.
“The move to incorporate San Tan Valley will be important as it affects how and when the county will spend money in that region. The ballot question is: Do the citizens want to control their destiny and increase the services and types of services that come with incorporation, or are they content with the limited services that a county can provide? If they vote to incorporate it, that will have a huge effect on, not just Pinal County, but on the state as a whole, and how the state-shared revenues are divided up.
“The third major issue will be the RTA (new transportation plan and tax). Now that there is a lawsuit, we will sit back and wait for a judge to decide if the voters knew what they were voting for, meanwhile spending taxpayers dollars to defend our position. There is little (the county) can do as we go through this process.”