Special Election Statewide May 17 > Deadline Today To Register To Vote

A statewide special election on Tuesday, May 17 will be held for voters to decide on two ballot measures:

Proposition 123 (relating to education and finance)
Proposition 124 (relating to public retirement system).
All polling places will be open from 6 a.m. to 7 p.m.
If you are already signed up to receive an early ballot by mail, you will automatically receive an early mail-in ballot if you are on the Permanent Early Voter List. 
Early voting begins by mail and in person Wednesday, April 20.
Early voting by mail ends May 11 and early voting in person ends May 13.
ID is required at the polling sites on Election Day.
For voters in Mesa there are only four polling places located at churches:
1. Hi-Way Baptist Church 10505 E Brown Road
2. Sun Valley Community Church 3065 S Ellsworth
3. Pilgrim Evangelical Lutheran Church 3257 E University Drive
4. Red Mountain United Methodist Church 2936 N Power Road

Arizona's Publicity Pamphlet is out, issued by Secretary of State Michele Reagan.

If you haven't received it or found a copy here's a link to view and read it >>
http://www.signatureflip.com/az/capital/2016-04-01rEdition.pub/index.html
Complete texts on both propositions are included, as well as pros and cons for Prop 123.
There are no entries opposing Prop 124.
This post will take a quick look at the so-called "funding deal" for Prop 123 that throws this issue to Arizona voters out of different unresolved divided State Legislature party-loyalties about how to fund education in a state with significant failings in the quality and success of educational achievements. Voter approval will change the Arizona State Constitution - that's not a small matter. Prop 123 will remove principal from the State Land Trust at the same time there's litigation ordering the state to fulfill certain obligations to cities where tax increases are no-no's for both the Democrats and Republicans.

Public education is failing here in Arizona - throwing more money into the same system is unlikely to improve results, but then again we are dealing with politics and not digging into some of the policies creating under-achievement, low graduation rates in high schools, community colleges, colleges and universities [all with hiking tuition]
Here is a selection of reports and studies from ASU's Morrison Institute for Public Policy readers are encouraged to take a look at:
Report underscores AZ's education gap,looming economic crisis
Arizona Minority Student Progress Report
RELATED: Failing to address education gaps puts Arizona's economic future at risk
Arizona 'leaves too many behind'
READ: Valdez: How school choice sabotages Latino kids
AZ Students struggle to achieve academic success
READ: Arizona Minority Students Still Struggle With Educational Achievement
Arizona's future workforce languishing
READ: Report: Educational gaps put Arizona's economic future at risk
Social equities in question
Morrison Institute for Public Policy is Arizona's premier think tank for independent and nonpartisan research, analysis and public outreach

Mesa mayor John Giles weighs in on taking sides in this 3-minute YouTube video from October of last year
Arizona Education Funding - State Land Trust Proposal

Supporters share their thoughts on Governor Ducey's State Land Trust education proposal.

Real Time with Bill Maher: New Rule – Tax the Churches (HBO)

Over 3,240 comments already . . . gotta say people who view this get engaged!

Crisis In Affordable Housing > Rising Rents // Inclusionary Zoning

The Affordable-Housing Crisis Moves Inland

Rents are up and pay is the same, prompting cities across America to explore inclusionary zoning as a solution.

Article by Patrick Clark / April 15, 2016 — 4:00 AM MST

Inclusionary housing emerged from the suburbs of Washington, D.C., in the early 1970s to meet two goals:
Create affordable housing at low cost to local governments and mix/integrate housing reserved for low- and moderate-income residents with higher-priced market rate rentals and for-sale units [condominiums, for example]

Phoenix is rated tenth highest for rising rents as you can see in the accompanying image from the today's whole article in BloombergThe particulars vary, but the main idea was to tie the construction of housing for working-class households to market-rate projects. That often means granting a variance to build more units than zoning codes typically allow or offering tax abatements and other incentives.About 500 local jurisdictions, from New York City to West Palm Beach County, Fla., have adopted these kinds of policies over the years. But now, as developers rush to build new, market-rate apartments in cities big and small, some local officials are considering inclusionary zoning for the first time, while others seek to add teeth to existing programs, said Erika Poethig, director of urban policy initiatives at the Urban Institute. Other useful visuals with information are provided in the images and links below

MAPPING AMERICA'S RENTAL HOUSING CRISIS
Many households struggle to afford a decent, safe place to live. Over the past five years, rents have risen while the number of renters needing affordable housing has increased. These two pressures make finding affordable housing even tougher for America’s poorest households.
Readers can see the map and other details here

ABOUT THIS MAP

The figures in this analysis represent a best estimate of the affordable rental housing gap and federal assistance for extremely low-income (ELI) renter households by county in the United States. The data analyzed come from multiple sources: the American Community Survey (ACS) Public Use Microdata Sample from the Census Bureau (via the Integrated Public Use Microdata Series from the Minnesota Population Center), the US Department of Housing and Urban Development’s (HUD’s) Public and Indian Housing Information Center and Tenant Rental Assistance Certification System, the HUD Section 8 income limits, and ACS pretabulated data from the Census Bureau.
The data on HUD-assisted housing represent a best estimate of the total number of HUD-subsidized ELI households. We include only those programs for which we can obtain data from HUD—public housing, Housing Choice vouchers, moderate rehabilitation, and Section 8 new construction and substantial rehabilitation—and only those recipients who are not rent-burdened. Because we were unable to obtain county-level data on rental housing programs funded through the US Department of Agriculture, federal assistance to ELI renter households in rural counties is undercounted.

 

A brief history of America and Cuba

Fair And Affordable Housing = A Civil Right

That's the headline in this opinion piece posted yesterday Thursday, April 14, 2016 3:16 p.m. Terri Jett
In recent remarks at the National Low Income Housing Coalition Policy Forum, U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) Secretary Julian Castro stated, “Our nation can’t fulfill any of our major goals — from tackling inequality and improving folks’ health, to keeping neighborhoods safe and making sure every child gets a good education — unless we also focus on housing.”
Julián Castro was in Phoenix yesterday.

He's an American Democratic politician, who has been the United States Secretary of Housing and Urban Development since July 28, 2014.
He continued to state in Dr. Jett's opinion piece, “That’s because housing is one of the most basic needs we have — a need that’s as much about how we live as about where we live.”
The organization to which he was addressing his remarks distributes an important yearly study called “Out of Reach,” which it has done since 1989. The study details what it costs on average across the nation and state-by-state to rent a modest two-bedroom apartment.
The 2015 report brings up this information, “A renter earning the federal minimum wage of $7.25 per hour would need to work 85 hours per week to afford a one-bedroom rent at the Fair Market Rent (FMR) and 102 hours per week to afford a two-bedroom FMR.” For Indiana where the reporter lives an hourly wage of $14.31 per hour is required to afford a two-bedroom apartment without paying more than 30 percent of one’s income, with the FMR cost at $744. In other words, a household must earn $2,480 monthly or $29,764 annually, assuming a 40-hour workweek, 52 weeks per year. Quite honestly, no one works a 40-hour workweek any more, but that’s another discussion on work-life balance and the ever-increasing productivity demands on the 99 percent with the ever-decreasing level of recreational activity in our lives, which is important to enhancing our quality of life, as noted by the World Health Organization. The bottom line is that housing should be much more affordable in relationship to wages.
And yet reflecting on Castro’s speech, there are other considerations beyond income that are also critical: the issues of fairness and opportunity, which have required federal intervention for the past 50-plus years. In terms of addressing the urgent housing needs of the very low income households, for the first time we now have the National Housing Trust Fund, which will begin providing grants this summer to address the shortage of 7.2 million affordable homes for the nation’s more than 10 million extremely low income families. The Obama administration has secured more than $170 million dollars for this program so far, which will be used to build, preserve and rehabilitate rental homes.

Dr. Terri Jett is an associate professor of political science and special assistant to the provost for diversity and inclusivity at Butler University. Comments can be sent to tjett@butler.edu.

Employment Report for March 2016 Out

411 extracted from this this report by Eric Jay Toll that appeared in Phoenix Business Journal yesterday:

The Arizona workforce is approaching the 3-million-worker milestone, standing at 2.94 million in March.

Visual thumbnails can be seen using above link and on the official AODA website >> https://doa.az.gov/

Month over month, the state added 12,200 jobs in March.

Of those jobs, 7,300 were in leisure and hospitality.

[Blogger's note: typically the lowest paying and frequently part-time jobs, not "bread-winner" jobs] more than all other sectors combined.

Education and health services, construction, and financial activities added a combined 5,900 jobs over the past month.

Professional and business services lost 1,400.

This continues the trend PBJ takes when with a deeper look at in their upcoming weekly edition, available April 15, which shows that the jobs gained since the recession are lower-wage positions compared to the jobs lost in the recession.

 

The Valley increased its workforce by 3.7 percent over 2016, but the Prescott area was up 4.5 percent over last year.
The state workforce increased 3.2 percent.
Tucson increased 3.1 percent
Sierra Vista-Douglas metro workforce declined by 1.4 percent.
 

Mesa In The Sports Media Swim > Fast Times @ Sky High

Reporters are on the beat early with this headline posted: note the time
Five For Friday: Swimming
By Paul D. Bowker | 4/15/2016 12:01:00 AM
Less than three months away from the U.S. Olympic Team Trials, the fourth leg of the Arena Pro Swim Series this week in Mesa, Arizona, takes on an added importance.

Olympic star power in the meet includes world-record holders Michael Phelps, Ryan Lochte, Missy Franklin and Katie Ledecky, in addition to a number of other Olympic champions. Phelps, an 18-time Olympic gold medalist, is expected to battle Lochte, a nine-time Olympic champion, in the men’s 200-meter individual medley.
Competition goes through Saturday night in the Skyline Aquatic Center in Mesa.
Olympic 100-meter freestyle champion Nathan Adrian, the men’s points leader, is coming off a sweep of the men’s sprint events in the Arena Pro Swim’s Orlando, Florida, meet in March. He is the top seed in the 50 and 100 freestyle.

Ledecky, the women’s points leader, is the top seed in the women’s 200 freestyle, a stacked field that also includes No. 2 seed Katinka Hosszu, No. 3 Franklin and No. 4 Allison Schmitt. Hosszu, a native of Hungary who now lives in the United States, and Franklin, a four-time Olympic gold medalist, are the top two seeds in the women’s 100 backstroke.
Ledecky is also the top seed in the women’s 400 and 800 freestyle, and Hosszu is the top seed in the women’s 200 and 400 IM, and 100 and 200 backstroke.
The women’s 100 freestyle could be a battle among top seed Simone Manuel, Franklin and Ledecky.
TV: 6:30 p.m. ET Friday and midnight Saturday, NBC Sports Network; 6:30 p.m. Saturday, Universal HD
Webcast: 9 p.m. Friday and Saturday, NBC Sports Live Extra
Source: http://m.teamusa.org/News/2016/April/15/Five-For-Friday-Swimming
 

More news and related stories
https://swimswam.com/2016-mesa-pss-dana-vollmer-swims-fastest-usa-100-fly-2012/