As Arizona’s Treasurer, Andrei will be our state’s Chief Economic Officer – the person whose job is not just to keep the state’s books or raise alarm bells when the ledgers are out of line, but the person responsible for directing our state’s investment decisions, setting an economic strategy for the state and pushing it through the Legislature to put it into action.

To do this, Andrei will bring people together across the lines of political party and all the other divisions we just can’t afford to worry about at this time of economic crisis. In fact, this moment is too important for us to wait for Election Day for that kind of leadership. So Andrei is spending a year and a half putting together a detailed plan to turn our economy around by traveling the state talking with Arizonans at their businesses, their community centers, and their kitchen tables. 

He’s getting their thoughts – and asking you to tell him yours. Go to the MY econoMY section of AndreiForArizona.com and share your stories about how the economic crisis has affected you and your ideas about how to take our economy in a new direction.

Andrei will be unveiling details of his economic plan for Arizona’s future. In the meantime, here is some of his approach to the challenges of transforming our economy:

Turning our Economy Around
Making Arizona “The Solar State”
A Revolution in State Government
Reviving Rural Arizona

Turning our Economy Around

Today, Arizona finds itself facing two economic crises. In the short term, we face one of the most dire economic situations in the state’s history. People all over the world and all across America are hurting, but no state has been hit harder than Arizona. We face the worst budget deficit of any state in the union and the third highest foreclosure rate. Two years ago, we were number two in job creation, now we’re ranked 49^th – trailing behind even Michigan with its cratering auto industry.

When you strip away the headlines and the statistics, we’re left with millions of Arizona families that are hurting – feeling helpless as they or their loved ones lose their jobs, their homes, or their businesses.

This didn’t have to happen. We find ourselves at this point as the result of decisions made by state leaders who failed to invest in Arizona, spur the creation of the jobs of the future, and give us the government we deserve. 

But Arizona also finds itself facing a longer-term crisis. The decisions state government makes over the next few years will decide whether Arizona becomes a magnet for innovators and entrepreneurs or pursues a future of low-wage, low-skill jobs. 

So we need to rebuild the Arizona economy. But we need to do more than that. We need to build a new Arizona economy that is stronger and better; one with more opportunity and more reward for innovation.

As Treasurer, Andrei will provide new economic leadership. He understands that Arizona's economic future isn't just copper and cattle and cotton, but computers and commerce and creativity. He will lead the fight for policies that will make Arizona the home of a “new entrepreneurial economy” – an economy that makes it easier for new businesses to start, grow, and thrive. 

Arizona’s State Treasurer decides how we invest billions of our state’s dollars. Today, the great majority of our longer term investments are on Wall Street – and because of this we’ve lost hundreds of millions of dollars that should be going to our public schools and universities. 

Andrei believes we need to stop putting all our investment eggs in one basket and invest more back here at home in Arizona. As State Treasurer, he’ll make investments that are safer and get a better rate of return while creating thousands of jobs here in Arizona in the industries of the future like high-tech, biotech, wind, and solar energy.

Other states – places like Utah, Oklahoma, Oregon, North Carolina, Pennsylvania and New Mexico – are doing just this. It’s time Arizona led the charge on creating 21^st century jobs instead of lagging behind. We’re all paying the price for our failure to do so.

We should be investing less of our funds in a system built on bailing out dinosaur corporations or giving failed CEOs bigger bonuses and instead should be encouraging innovators, entrepreneurs, and those who are working their hardest every day.

Making Arizona “The Solar State”

Andrei will focus on providing leadership and incentives to make Arizona the solar energy capital of the world; the Saudi Arabia of sun. We can transform this state’s economy, flooding it with wealth and jobs – both high-skill and blue-collar. And we will send a message that Arizona is a state on the move – an innovative, exciting place to live and work.

Think of this: solar panels on a piece of land the size of Lake Powell could take care of all of Arizona’s power needs. We wouldn’t have to rely on Texas or California or anyplace else. 

We have the technology. We know how to do this. In the journal Scientific American in 2007, a group of scientists presented a plan to power 70 percent of America’s energy needs with solar energy based in the Southwest. 

If we don’t seize this opportunity someone else will. Today, Germany is the world’s leader in solar energy – installing half of all the photovoltaic cells in the world in 2007. We have 330 days a year of sunshine – they have the same concentration of sunshine as Anchorage, Alaska. 

Here at home, states like Oregon and New Jersey are ahead of us in investment in solar power. According to the Greater Phoenix Economic Council, Arizona’s lack of incentives for solar power has meant we’re losing thousands of jobs to other states.

That’s bad enough, but what’s worse is that our window of opportunity is closing. A hundred years ago, cars were being built in Chicago and Cleveland and many other places, but eventually one place – Detroit – became known as “Motor City.” Fifty years ago, computers were being developed in places all across the country, but eventually one place became known as “Silicon Valley.” Now the race is on to see which state will be the home to the solar energy industry and the thousands of jobs it will bring. Andrei will work every day to make sure Arizona comes to be known as “The Solar State.”

A Revolution in State Government

As an Arizona state prosecutor, Andrei went after individuals perpetrating financial fraud and public corruption – in big business and government alike. As State Treasurer, he won't be either party's lapdog, he'll be the taxpayer's bulldog – using all his energy to root out the way scarce dollars are abused and misused. 

That's why he's announced a four point plan to make government more transparent and attack government waste.  He'll use the Treasurer’s audit power and bully pulpit to go after waste, shine a light on the darkest parts of the government, and eliminate the perks and special deals at taxpayer expense.  

It starts at home with making Treasurer’s office more transparent.  He'll make sure we give citizens more information by putting the state's checkbook online and making it easy for Arizonans to understand which companies and banks are getting their billions of dollars of state investments.  He'll quickly disclose his meetings with lobbyists and others who seeks to do business with the Treasurer's office.  And he's the only candidate who's made his own investments public -- as state law requires.  He'll keep doing that as Treasurer and demand that his deputies do the same.

Andrei will conduct top-to-bottom audits of government agencies.  That's what the responsibility of the Treasurer.  As the Treasurer's website reads: “The Treasurer’s office also has audit authority over all state finances.”  Those audits haven't been happening.  When Andrei is Treasurer, they will.

Andrei also will insist that the politicians have to play by the same rules as everyone else.  He's called for eliminating the legislature’s per diem.  Its crazy that legislators get paid their salaries and then get paid again for every day they show up to work.  No one else gets paid twice for doing their jobs. And Andrei has called for a cut in pay for the legislature and governor if they can’t present a balanced budget by beginning of the fiscal year.  Further, he'll audit the legislature and governor’s office – which hasn’t been done in at least a decade. 

Andrei will work with local governments to end abuses there too.  Recent reports have shown that some county officials have been treating themselves to $22 pay-per-view movies in hotels and $40 steak dinners on government credit cards.  At a time that people in Arizona are eating chuck, taxpayers shouldn’t be paying for government employees to be eating filets.  Arizonans are working too hard to pay their own credit card bills to foot the bill for somebody else.

But the problem is not just those who are working the system – it’s that the system isn’t working. What we need is not just reform, but a revolution in how state government works so that it is updated for the 21^st century. Our state’s challenge is that we have a GM era government in a Google age – and until we change that we’ll continue to have GM’s bottom line. As State Treasurer, Andrei will work to revolutionize state government so that it works better, costs less, and provides high-quality, 21^st century services. 

Every time an Arizonan is stuck in line or put on hold at a government office, they lose faith in the ability of government to deliver for them. More importantly, they are not getting the kind of quality services they deserve. No one knows this better than the employees of state government who witness the ineffectiveness of our top-down, regimented bureaucracy on a daily basis. As State Treasurer, Andrei will make sure Arizonans have more individual choices, good options, and personal decision-making power over state government. 

Reviving Rural Arizona

Andrei will work with local community leaders to create and put into action an economic strategy for rural Arizona. It is not enough for economic prosperity to run up Central Avenue in Phoenix or down Scottsdale Road.  Andrei knows it has to run through Main Streets all across rural Arizona.

Today, there is more Internet broadband in Bangalore than in Bullhead City. It used to be that when a highway passed you by, you were left out. Cities were made and broken by the path of Route 66. Now that is true with the information superhighway and Andrei will work to connect more of rural Arizona and tribal nations to the opportunities of global economy. 

By taking the lead in making Arizona “The Solar State,” Andrei will bring an unparalleled jobs engine to rural Arizona. There are 250,000 square miles of open land that are not in private hands and are suitable for solar use. Most of that open land is found in rural Arizona. Large scale solar projects mean jobs that can never be outsourced and are here for the long haul.