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Napolitano, the Four Billion Dollar Woman

PHOENIX (By Matthew Benson, Arizona Republic) January 24, 2009 — Arizona's past six years under Gov. Janet Napolitano were the worst of times.

She took office in January 2003 amid a post-9/11 recession that blew a billion-dollar hole in the state budget.

Then the real-estate gold rush collapsed

As Napolitano, 51, resigned the governorship this week, she left behind a state not so different from the one she inherited.

The budget shortfall is worse, totaling more than $4 billion between this fiscal year and next. The state economy is stuck in neutral. And many of the very programs and policies Napolitano championed are in jeopardy.

Asked about the fiscal health of the state she leaves to successor Jan Brewer, Napolitano was matter-of-fact unapologetic.

Napolitano said, "I took office with a deficit. Unfortunately, I'm leaving with a deficit I hoped that would not be the case, but the national economy swept over everybody."

But will that be Napolitano's legacy? Or will Arizona's 21st governor be remembered for launching education programs and building projects of bricks and mortar?

The answer may well depend on what happens next — and that, for the first time in six years, is entirely out of Napolitano's hands.

A former U.S. attorney and state attorney general, Napolitano was elected governor in 2002 by the slimmest of margins. But she was anything but tentative as she bypassed a Republican-led Legislature at will, signing 11 executive orders in her first 100 days.

Napolitano's leadership style led to frequent dust-ups with GOP lawmakers. Democrats, too, sometimes bristled.

Typical was a 2003 episode involving the renaming of a Valley landmark then known as Squaw Peak.

The name had long been a source of controversy among Native Americans who consider the term "squaw" a slur.

When a 23-year-old Hopi-Hispanic woman from Tuba City was killed in Iraq that year, Napolitano saw an opportunity to both right a wrong and honor a fallen soldier. Lori Piestewa, the nation's first female Native American killed in foreign combat, would become the namesake of Piestewa Peak.

But not without controversy. The head of the Arizona Geographic and Historic Names Board accused a top Napolitano aide of using heavy-handed tactics in pressuring the board to waive a customary five-year waiting period.

Though the aide resigned and the board ultimately agreed to rename the peak, critics never let go of the incident.

But if Napolitano's demeanor could tend toward the imperial, her temper was the stuff of legend. One well-worn story from early in her term had her tossing Arizona State University President Michael Crow from her office, slamming the door with such force that it sent her security detail scrambling as though a gun had gone off.

Just as renowned was Napolitano's political savvy and policy wonkishness. She routinely cowed legislators, fractured the GOP caucus seemingly at will and almost always walked away from Capitol negotiations with the bulk of what she wanted.

During the state's economic boom of a few years ago, Napolitano scored deals with the Legislature that landed hundreds of millions of dollars to bring all-day kindergarten statewide, increase teacher pay and dole out grants to stoke a growing biotech and research industry. She also oversaw an expansion of state-subsidized health care and a nearly doubling of the number of beds available at Arizona's domestic-violence shelters.

She acquiesced in other areas, approving tax cuts and signing into law a crackdown on employers of undocumented workers that was generally recognized at the time as the nation's strictest.

"At the end of the day, when you look at her tenure, there was compromise," said Glenn Hamer, president of the Arizona Chamber of Commerce and Industry.

Just as significant in its impact on state policy, Napolitano smashed the state veto record by rejecting 181 legislative bills. The vetoes encompassed every manner of proposal, but her favorites involved restrictions on abortion and enforcement against illegal immigration she considered either too extreme or the federal government's responsibility.

"I fear that we're going to have a retirement of the veto stamp to the State Museum," lamented Arizona Democratic Party Chairman Don Bivens, pondering life after Napolitano for the Legislature's minority party. "I think that will be one thing that we'll miss."

'History will tell'

Even as state finances tightened in the past 18 months, Napolitano pushed ahead. Over Republican objections, she orchestrated budget deals that relied heavily on borrowing, reserves and accounting maneuvers to protect state programs and continue spending.

Perhaps the best example: This year's budget includes a $1 billion borrowing plan for university construction and maintenance, with the bonds floated by revenue from the state Lottery. But the biggest gamble was the Arizona economy would come roaring back.

It didn't.

Napolitano defended her budget moves: "If you're going to stay competitive, you've got to invest in things like education and infrastructure.

"Per capita, our spending is still among the lowest states in the country. Our debt is still among the lowest states in the country."

Regardless, the budget shortfall colors virtually every discussion of state policy and programs. And it looms as a threat to state workers fearful of losing their jobs amid the worst economy in memory.

But will it tarnish the legacy of a governor who accomplished so much?

In some ways, former state Senate President Ken Bennett reflects the conflicted views of Napolitano's tenure.

"In general, I think she gave people a feeling of confidence and optimism and competence," he said. "In other areas, unfortunately, I think she's leaving the state worse off than she found it."

For Napolitano's part, she's comfortable with what she achieved during a shortened tenure — though less so discussing issues of legacy. Such matters are best distilled by the passing of time.

"What the legacy is, history will tell."

Budget problems

But with the state's economy in crisis, some of her major accomplishments may become victims of budget cuts.

Reductions being seriously considered would scale back or eliminate many of the fruits of Napolitano's past six years in office. Those options include the loss of all-day kindergarten, nearly $600 million in cuts to public universities and the elimination of Kids-Care, a state health program for children of the working poor.

Napolitano's legacy will depend in large measure on whether those programs and her other central achievements survive the budget bloodletting to come, said Martin Shultz, a lobbyist for Pinnacle West Capital Corp., parent of Arizona Public Service Co.

"What's going to be remembered is what she left here," Shultz said. "Her legacy is going to be measured by how stable and fundamental those prove to be in these most trying of economic times."

If that's the benchmark, these must be troubling days for Napolitano.