SEDONA AZ–“I am an outsider. I have no political resume and I have spent my entire life in the private sector,” Republican candidate for Arizona State 
Treasurer, Doug Ducey said. “I believe our state is headed in the wrong direction, our budget is broken and our finances are a mess. And I believe there is room for someone new with fresh energy that can bring a business approach to state government.
‘I am proud that Dean Martin, the current Treasurer has endorsed me. I think that Dean has done a good and professional job. I want to stand on his shoulders and continue that.”
Ducey started Cold Stone Creamery and before selling the corporation in 2007, he built the franchise up to 1440 stores, in all 50 states and ten countries around the world.
Ducey is committed to doing three things; first, he intends to be a good and prudent manager of the state’s money and investments, the primary focus of the State Treasurer. “Second, I want to bring complete clarity to our state finances,” candidate Ducey said. “Dean has a spot on the web, called azcheckbooks.com. That shows a lot of the information and transactions that take place in the state budget. I want to take that data and turn it into easily understandable and searchable information so that voters can understand our budget. So that then voters can bring pressure on the legislature and the governor to make decisions as the state goes forward.”
Finally, candidate Ducey wants to make himself available to the governor and the legislature, to help get the state economy back on track. “I’m a business person and I understand how entrepreneurs think. Arizonans are hurting, they are unemployed and under-employed. There is no reason an elected State Treasurer can’t be part of the equation in getting our state’s economy growing again.”
“The first thing the state needs to do is get its fiscal house in order,” said Primary candidate Ducey. “We are up to $600 million in the red on any given day. Then we need to woo business to the state. It is a great place to live, a great lifestyle…Why don’t we have more businesses locating here?”
Doug Ducey thinks that a number of state level leaders, both elected and from the business community could join together and make presentations to business leaders to encourage them to locate in Arizona. The tax code should be reformed to make it friendly to job creation.
The worst thing about Arizona’s tax code, in Ducey’s opinion, is that it is too confusing; Ducey exampled commercial property tax which he thinks harms business and job creation with fees that are passed along to the consumer anyway.
Arizona candidate Ducey points out that different individuals bring different skills and knowledge of the economy to the job, and their own sense of what business is about. Any elected official, regardless of their beliefs, is going to have to address the economy right now and Doug Ducey doesn’t see any reason that the State Treasurer cannot be part of that dialogue. “For example,” August 24th Primary candidate Ducey added, “we are in a recession and a recession is a slow down. If you have a whole lot of ice cream in a back room and you need to sell it quickly, do you lower the price or raise the price? The answer is pretty obvious. The reason I wasn’t for the one cent sales tax is that it raises the price of that ice cream. I did not vote for the tax, at the same time I did not crusade against it. But, I was vocal that I was against it. I was concerned about the sales tax because with it we just put a band-aid on the budget and kicked the can down the road again. We didn’t make any of the hard decisions.”
In summation, Republican State Treasurer candidate Doug Ducey said, ‘The most important question that Arizonans have in the fall is “Who is going to get us out of this mess?” Do Arizonans want the same people or people with fresh energy and a new voice?”
For more information go to http://www.votedougducey.com/
Article written by Joni Dahlstrom, sedonaeye.com Staff Writer JoniD@eSedona.net Sedona Times Publishing Election Central c2010
