New Mexico provides better funding and programs for Native Americans than Arizona

New Mexico provides better funding and programs for Native Americans
than Arizona, according to Arizona State Sen. Jack Jackson Jr. Sen.
Jackson gives two examples of this. First, New Mexico has added a tax
to alcohol in order to fund a detox center in Gallup that has done
some great work to address the alcohol problem there. Second, New
Mexico has a Department of Indian Affairs with cabinet status so the
state's tribes have a seat at the table. Jackson proposed two similar
laws for Arizona during the past legislative session. Both proposals
passed the Senate, but didn't get out of the House.

"(House Majority Leader Andy) Tobin didn't move on it. I don't know
why," Jackson said. "I worked hard with the other side of the isles
(Republicans), but none of my six bills came out of the House."
Jackson said he worked with State Sen. Sylvia Allen on how to address
alcohol and substance abuse in northern Arizona. "The detox center in
Gallup is doing some great work there," he said. "We need more local
control on the sale of alcohol."

Jackson said McKinley County has an additional tax on alcohol to be
used for rehabilitation centers. He said New Mexico can also hold
suspects up to 72 hours without charging them which gives those on
alcohol enough time for it to leave their system. "Some had questions
about due process, but you need to hold (alcohol violators) more than
24 hours so the alcohol leaves their system and they can make rational
decisions," he said. "We're continuing to work on this during the
summer."

Jackson serves on the Senate's National Strategy on HIV/AIDS and
President Obama's Advisory Committee on HIV/AIDS. He said strategy and
resources needs to be better coordinated between the federal
government, states, tribes and counties. Jackson supports the
Affordable Care Act, also known as Obamacare, because it includes the
Indian Health Services' Improvement Act. "I've been working on this
for 15 years. This will greatly improve health care on the
reservations," he said.

Jackson is calling for the legislature to establish a Department of
Indian Affairs mirroring the one in New Mexico. This would give Native
Americans a cabinet position in the governor's office that would make
it more likely that Native American concerns would be heard. Jackson
supports more equitable funding from the Transaction Privilege Tax
(TPT), which deals with taxes that the tribes pay into the state
without a fair return. Some of this funding goes to Dineh College, but
he also wants funding for Navajo Technical College.

The bill passed the Senate this past legislative session, but didn't
get out of the House. He will resubmit it next year. He emphasized
that the overall TPT funding bill will be a priority for next year's
legislative session. Jackson supports better funding for K-12
education. He said last year state education did not suffer a
decrease, but could have received an increase due to a state surplus.
Instead, the Republicans put the remaining funding in a rainy day
fund. "That's not a bad thing," he said. Jackson stated that next year
the state anticipates a $1.5 billion deficit. He said this could
result in decreases to state education. Redistricting has increased
Jackson's district - he has no primary or general election opponents -
from five to seven tribes. The district already included the Navajo
and Hopi tribes. Flagstaff is no longer in the district. "I'm not
happy about that because I enjoyed representing Flagstaff," he said.
Page and Winslow are now included in the district.

The Republicans have had a supermajority in the state legislature for
years. Jackson, a Democrat, anticipates that there could be a 15-15
split in the Senate after the next election, but if that split doesn't
occur the Democrats will still have higher numbers and it is likely
that Republicans will have to work with them in order to get their
bills passed. Jackson is concerned about veterans issues, but was not
selected to serve on the Veterans Committee during this past
legislative session. He hopes to get on it next year. "We need a
resolution to honor the Navajo Code Talkers. I would like to give them
some recognition and we'll take a look at that during the next
session, possibly during tribal-legislative day," he said.

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