Issue Position: Diversifying Arizona's Economy

Issue Position

The State of Arizona needs to complete its portfolio of types of businesses in its second century. However, I don't view our efforts as "moving away" from homebuilding, tourism, mining and other traditional industries in a negative sense, but rather positively "adding to" those industries to complete our economic portfolio.

The new Arizona Commerce Authority will be focused on growing four sectors: (1) science and technology, (2) aerospace and defense, (3) renewable energy and (4) small business innovation/entrepreneurship. Arizona has certain existing strengths and we need to focus on them in order to have credibility in the national and international marketplace. These four sectors were picked because we already have some strength or advantages in these areas. While we will heavily recruit new businesses in these sectors, retention and growth of existing businesses in Arizona is also very important.

A particular interest of mine is to expand university and private incubator programs to develop Arizona-grown businesses. For example, the highly successful Ventana Medical Systems headquartered in Oro Valley was founded by a pathologist at the University of Arizona Medical Center. It is now one of the world's leading developers and manufacturers of medical diagnostic instrument and reagent systems. The Tucson area now is developing a biomedical and advanced optics cluster. We are seeing a similar type of cluster develop for our solar industries in Arizona. Arizona was recently named the "Solar King" -- the top state for solar industry development -- by a leading business development publication.

My long-term vision is to develop "job hubs" around Arizona for specific types of industries. At my direction, the Arizona Department of Transportation and Arizona State Land Department are working together for the first time to identify state land and plan the necessary transportation infrastructure for these future "job hubs" and create good-quality jobs for decades to come.

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