Rep. Smith: Gusse has it wrong

Councilwoman Gusse,

My comments here are in response to your open letter to me asking my position about Global Water, TPT (Transaction Privilege Tax) reform, and questions about some of my recent legislation, specifically about a bill of mine that protects renters from being foreclosed on and bills trying to calculate the cost of how much Arizona spends on free health- re and education of illegal aliens.

First and foremost, I apologize that I was not able to attend the last council meeting (I was trying to adjust my schedule but unfortunately could not due to the fact that my job keeps me in Phoenix until typically 9 p.m., which means I do not get back to Maricopa until 10 p.m. and notified Mayor Price beforehand).

In any event, so you are aware, I attended the last Global Water working group session with Mayor Price, Councilmen (Marvin) Brown and (Bridger) Kimball, City Manager Brenda Fischer and others just a few weeks ago where we discussed the issue and possible solutions at length. Before that group session however, I had personally initiated a meeting for Mayor Price and I with members of the Corporation Commission at their office in Phoenix solely to discuss the Global Water issue with them directly and to convey our concerns, so know that I am most certainly involved in this important issue to our city.

Regarding TPT reform, I have met with and had lengthy discussion with mayors and councilmembers from cities and towns throughout our district about TPT reform and how I am fighting to keep them from losing any revenue due to a new change the reform is proposing. I have been very outspoken and on the record about this from the beginning of these discussions and have said I would personally run an amendment to correct the bill if this new change is not resolved (if you recall, you and I even spoke about this very thing when we met just recently at the Capitol as well).

Regarding your comments on my foreclosure bill. We’ve all probably heard about the horror stories where people renting a home all of a sudden get evicted because their landlord (the owner) kept their rent money and never paid the mortgage and the bank forecloses and throws the renters out due to no fault of their own. When a constituent told me their story, I read our statutes and found that current state law only instructs landlords to inform renters that the home is in foreclosure before they go to rent it, but does nothing to protect renters if the home goes into foreclosure while they are renting, so my bill changes this flaw. Last year I drafted the language but could not introduce it until the start of session this year, and it just passed out of committee unanimously with full Republican and Democrat support.

To your point that this bill would have helped more people a few years ago (even before I got in office) I agree but I certainly hope you are not insinuating that it is not necessary now as this is still happening. Also, you being a Realtor who is a lot closer to this problem than I am and was seemingly much more aware of the problem earlier than I was, please know that you too can bring issues like this to my attention so that we can have them fixed sooner and not later as I’m sure your clients or anyone you know affected by this problem would have appreciated that effort on your part.

Additionally, you are correct in stating that I do believe in limited government, but you are now falsely and recklessly saying that a bill like this is contrary to those beliefs. Are you suggesting that closing a loophole in the law that protects innocent people from being thrown out of their home because the landlord was committing fraud and scamming them is now somehow “big government”? You do know that laws like this are necessary to protect the people, which of course are part of the oath that I am sworn to uphold, right?

As for the illegal immigration epidemic, you stated you are “actively involved in finding a reasonable solution for this,” but what are your proposals, as I have never heard you offer any solutions and am eager to hear them. As for my solutions, you know that I have personally raised private money to help secure our border, a project that will be fully implemented in the coming weeks.

Additionally, the data collection legislation you referenced that I am working on will help identify how many illegal aliens are taking advantage of free public benefits in our state and how much that is costing we the taxpayer (estimates show that Arizona spends approximately $2 billion per year on this). When you ask “what would a bill like this prove,” it would prove we are violating both Arizona law and federal law. As I hope you know, federal law and Title 46 in Arizona law plainly says no public services for illegal aliens. Furthermore, once the data is gathered, I would immediately send the final total to the federal government demanding re-payment for this unfunded mandate. Can you imagine what an extra $2 billion per year would do to help better our education and health-care systems throughout Arizona including those right here in Maricopa?

You then stated this data collecting legislation would cost Arizona money by using state funds and that these are once again “big government” policies. In making these statements, I’m assuming you have some fact behind them, so what costs do you believe are involved with collecting this data because you left that out in your letter?

You are aware that hospitals already collect data similar to this now when they calculate their uncompensated care and that all I am asking for is a breakdown of those numbers to delineate illegal aliens, correct? Let me also make you aware the Joint Legislative Budget Committee (whose job is to provide accurate cost estimates from everything to our state budget on down) says they believe this information can be collected from hospitals with simple technological methods.

This is also true in our schools and hopefully you are aware that schools already collect similar data from parents each year upon enrollment as mandated by state law. Again, all that my bill here would do is to take that existing information and to simply extract out the number of illegal students that are enrolled, so again, please tell me how that is going to be costly to the state?

In response to your claim these data collection bills are also “big government” policy, no doubt you are aware that Proposition 200 was passed by the voters of Arizona, which demanded no public benefits for illegal aliens (exit polls even showed approximately 50 percent of Latino voters approved Prop 200). Clearly these are not “big government bills,” rather just the opposite, they are adhering to what the people of Arizona have demanded that we do and that is backed up in federal law.