County speaks out on legislation affecting Yuma area

On Monday, the Yuma County Board of Supervisors authorized two letters with unanimous consent to go to top state officials in Phoenix and narrowed down some of their talking points for a March visit by Yuma County officials to Washington, D.C.

One of the letters approved with unanimous consent asks Gov. Doug Ducey to appeal the decision by the Arizona State Facilities Board that halted funding for Somerton High School.

“We’re looking forward to the day Somerton has a high school,” said Chairman Tony Reyes. “When San Luis (Ariz.) got their high school, it really changed the way the city looked and what the students were able to do. It was really beneficial for them.”

Supervisor Lynne Pancrazi added that San Luis and Kofa high schools are experiencing overcrowding and a high school in Somerton should relieve that.

The board also brought up Arizona House Bills 2030 and 2458, both of which would transfer authority of commercial ports like San

Luis II from the Arizona Department of Transportation to the Arizona Department of Public Safety (DPS).

The board motioned to finalize and send a letter of opposition to Arizona State Rep. John Fillmore.

“A transition like this would change the mentality being enforced at the port. A DPS mentality is much more of a law enforcement mentality,” Reyes said.

“Law enforcement is a different mentality. I don’t know where the idea for this bill is even coming from, but we’ve invested a lot of time with ADOT. If DPS takes over, two things will happen: DPS will have access to funding, and they would become a thorn in the side of everyone and prevent anyone from making changes.”

Reyes said that from the perspective of local elected officials, DPS is harder to connect to because the law enforcement mentality doesn’t make sense. Local elected officials are more concerned with the efficiency of the port, the hassle to the truck drivers and the benefit to Yuma-area communities when the port runs as well as other

nearby ports.

“The connection with ADOT is much closer, and it’s been developed over years,” Reyes said. “There’s really very little we have in common with DPS. We can’t really relate to a law enforcement mentality.”

Reyes also stressed that DPS would be repeating the role that the Department of Homeland Security plays through Customs and Border Protection, concerned with security and safety.

“The truck drivers aren’t really concerned they’re going to get a ticket; they just want to get through,” Reyes said.

Paul Melcher, the director of economic development and intergovernmental affairs, said that he’d communicate through a letter of opposition that “(Yuma County is) just getting the process to be an acceptable streamline, and we’d prefer a regulatory process, not a law enforcement process.”

Melcher also presented an outline for his talking points when he and representatives of Yuma County go to Washington, D.C., in March to ask for legislative support with specific items.

Melcher said that he has four definitive issues on his agenda: PILT, SCAAP, the San Luis port modernization, and an H-2A workforce bill.

PILT (Payment in Lieu of Taxes) and SCAAP (State Criminal Alien Assistance Program) both involve federal funding to help Arizona. Yuma County would be asking U.S. legislators to fund PILT, which compensates for money lost by designating federal lands, for the next 5 years to avoid the hassle of having to ask every year. SCAAP would reimburse the state for housing criminal aliens.

Although the San Luis port received $152.4 million in modernization funding in December, Melcher said the intention is to ask for the roughly $96 million to complete the $248.3 million requested.

“The appropriation bill that provided the funding gave no specified cuts, so we don’t know where the project will stop. The focus is on getting the entire amount of the funding to be successful with the modernization effort,” Melcher said. “We’re making sure we don’t get a port that’s partly modernized.”

Reyes said that he and representatives from the Arizona-Mexico Commission toured the San Luis port of entry last week and gained the understanding that officials in charge of the San Luis port of entry want the modernization funding to enhance the security capabilities of the port, not to facilitate trade and crossing times.

“Our concern would be relegated to second priority status,” Reyes said.

“We don’t know where the funding will run out or how much they’ll be able to do with what they have, so to really get everything done, we’d need the full funding.”

Melcher also talked about HB5038 also known as the Farm Workforce Modernization Act, which could become the legislative backbone for the H-2A visa program. The bill has been sitting in the Senate Judiciary Committee since Dec. 12, and Melcher said his goal will be to nudge the bill along the legislative process as much as he can.

Melcher said he may also have found a source for funding the fairgrounds relocation in the Defense Community Infrastructure Program, a program that would provide grants to state and local governments to improve and expand infrastructure with growing military installations. The program was created by a defense bill passed in December, but funding for the program hasn’t started.