Janet Napolitano
From Conservapedia
Named one of America’s Top Five Governors by Time Magazine, Janet Napolitano has led Arizona into a new era of prosperity and record growth.
When Governor Napolitano took office in 2003, Arizona faced a billion-dollar deficit, the worst financial crisis in its history.Through smart management she turned that deficit into a record billion-dollar surplus, without raising taxes – proving that you can be fiscally responsible, while investing in the future.
Governor Napolitano is committed to the values that matter to communities across America – a strong public education system, a safe homeland, a secure border, sensible economic development, affordable health care, and a government run efficiently and responsibly.
Governor Napolitano has made the education and protection of Arizona's children the driving force of her administration. She fought for and secured sweeping reforms and funding for Arizona's Child Protective Services system and created a new grade level in school by offering voluntary full-day kindergarten to every Arizona family. She secured a historic $100 million teacher salary package to keep Arizona’s best teachers in the classroom, and improved Arizona’s high school and college graduation rates.
While preparing students for the 21st centuryeconomy, Governor Napolitano believes that we must also create good jobs that will be there when they graduate. That’s why she led the effort to create Science Foundation Arizona to foster innovation, science and research, and partnered with business to support the expansion of Arizona's core sectors while growing and developing the state's bioscience and high-tech industries. She has accelerated Arizona's prosperity through incentives for angel investment, tax relief for hi-tech manufacturers who create jobs in the state, and by signing into law one of the largest business property tax relief measures in Arizona history. And she eased the tax burden on Arizona families through a $370 million income and property tax relief package.
Governor Janet Napolitano has been a national leader in addressing illegal immigration. As U.S. Attorney, she supervised the prosecution of more than 6,000 illegal immigration cases. As Attorney General she helped write the law to break up human smuggling rings. As Governor, she was the first to call for the National Guard at the border at federal expense, and today, more than 2,400 National Guard members from around the country are stationed at the border providing critical support to the Border Patrol. She’s led the effort to redesign Arizona’s ports of entry to better detect illegal cross border activity and has deployed new technology to track stolen vehicles that transport illegal immigrants and drugs on Arizona’s highways.
Under Governor Napolitano’s leadership, Arizona implemented the first state homeland security strategy in the nation and developed the Arizona Counter-Terrorism Information Center, a 24/7 multi-agency intelligence fusion center that tracks and shares critical data used to keep our cities and our borders safe. The Governor has also presided over unprecedented advancements in forest health and fire prevention by ensuring that Arizona leads the nation in thinning its state land, and that our communities have well-crafted and functional emergency plans.
Responding aggressively to Arizona's health care needs, Governor Napolitano has taken great strides to expand access for all Arizonans. To address the critical shortage of doctors in Arizona, Governor Napolitano worked closely with the Universities to break ground on Phoenix's first medical school. She partnered with the private sector to create one of the nation's first free prescription drug discount cards, the Arizona CoppeRx Card, which has saved seniors more than $15 million to date.
Governor Napolitano made many of these investments possible by shifting resources from waste and inefficiency to productivity. Through her hallmark Efficiency Review initiative, Governor Napolitano is changing the way state government works – from how it buys paper and pencils to how it provides health insurance. Utilizing common sense strategies, state government has identified permanent savings of hundreds of millions of dollars. Governor Napolitano has demonstrated that what matters is smart, efficient and effective government.
Recently named chair of the National Governors Association by her peers, Republicans and Democrats alike, Governor Napolitano stands out as a leader in developing innovative solutions to our country’s greatest challenges. Her Chair’s initiative, Innovation America, is designed to enhance the United States’ capacity to innovate, maintain its global competitive edge, and lead industries of the future.
Governor Napolitano is the current past chair of the Western Governors’ Association and is serving in her second term as Arizona's 21st Governor. Prior to her election as Governor of Arizona, Napolitano served one term as Arizona Attorney General and four years as U.S. Attorney for the District of Arizona. [1]
References
- ↑ http://azgovernor.gov/BioJN.asp Janet Napolitano - Governor of Arizona Bio
