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PRESIDENT CLINTON AND VICE PRESIDENT GORE'S ACCOMPLISHMENTS: Arizona

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• Unemployment Down to 3.7%: The unemployment rate in Arizona has declined from 7.0% to 3.7% since 1993.
• 738,900 New Jobs: 738,900 new jobs have been created in Arizona since 1993 -- an average of 94,328 jobs per year, compared to an average of just 22,525 jobs per year during the previous administration.
• 657,300 New Private Sector Jobs: Since 1993, 657,300 new private sector jobs have been created in Arizona—an average of 83,911 jobs per year, compared to an average of just 13,375 private sector jobs per year in the previous administration.
• 43,100 New Manufacturing Jobs: 43,100 manufacturing jobs have been created in Arizona since 1993 -- an average of 5,502 jobs per year. In contrast, an average of 3,800 manufacturing jobs were lost each year during the previous administration.
• 81,600 New Construction Jobs: 81,600 construction jobs have been created in Arizona since 1993 -- an average of 10,529 jobs per year. In contrast, an average of 2,350 construction jobs were lost each year during the previous administration.
• Poverty Has Fallen: Nationally, the poverty rate has fallen from 15.1% in 1993 to 11.8% in 1999, the lowest level since 1979. In Arizona, the poverty rate has fallen from 18.8% in 1997 to 14.3% in 1999.
• 191,000 Have Received a Raise: Approximately 76,000 Arizona workers benefited from an increase in the minimum wage—from $4.25 to $4.75 -- on October 1, 1996. They, along with about 115,000 more, received an additional raise—from $4.75 to $5.15 -- on September 1, 1997. President Clinton and Vice President Gore have called on Congress to raise the minimum wage by an additional $1.00 over two years.
• Home Building Up 8.6%: Home building in Arizona has increased by an average of 8.6% per year since 1993, after falling over 0.8% per year during the previous administration.
• A $500 Child Tax Credit to Help Families Raising Children:To help make it easier for families to raise their children, the balanced budget included a $500 per-child tax credit for children under 17. Thanks to President Clinton the Balanced Budget delivers a child tax credit to 403,000 families in Arizona.
• Business Failures Down 11.9% Per Year: Business failures in Arizona have dropped an average of 11.9% per year since 1993, after increasing 49.8% per year during the previous 12 years [Oct 98 data].
• Arizona's Families Reap Benefits of Deficit Reduction: Public debt is on track to be $2.4 trillion lower in 2000 than was projected in 1993. Debt reduction brings real benefits for the American people -- a family in Arizona with a home mortgage of $100,000 might expect to save roughly $2,000 per year in mortgage payments. Reduced debt also means lower interest rates and reduced payments on car loans and student loans.
• 5.7% Growth in Total Bank Loans and Leases: Arizona has seen a 5.7% average growth rate in total bank loans and leases per year since 1993. In contrast total bank loans and leases fell by an annual average of 2.9% during the previous administration.
• 7.4% Growth in Commercial and Industrial Loans and Leases: Since 1993, Arizona has experienced a 7.4% annual growth rate in commercial and industrial loans and leases. In contrast, commercial and industrial loans and leases fell by an annual average of 16.6% during the previous administration.

• Over 11,000 Children in Head Start: 11,127 Arizona children were enrolled in Head Start in 1999. In FY00, Arizona will receive $73.7 million in Head Start funding, an increase of $38.9 million over 1993.
• More High-Quality Teachers With Smaller Classes for Arizona's Schools: Thanks to the Class Size Reduction Initiative, Arizona received $17.5 million in 1999 to hire about 450 new, well-prepared public school teachers and reduce class size in the early grades. President Clinton secured funding for a second and third installment of the plan, giving Arizona $18.9 million in 2000 and $23.6 million in 2001.
• $16.7 Million for School Repairs: President Clinton fought for and won a new initiative to repair America's schools, providing $1.2 billion in the FY 2001 budget for urgent school renovation. Arizona will receive $16.7 million in school renovation grants.
• $6.7 Million for Technology Literacy: This year [FY01], Arizona receives $6.7 million for the Technology Literacy Challenge Fund which helps communities and the private sector ensure that every student is equipped with the computer literacy skills needed for the 21^st century.
• $130.3 Million for Students Most in Need: Arizona will receive $130.3 million in Title I Grants (to Local Educational Agencies) providing extra help in the basics for students most in need, particularly communities and schools with high concentrations of children in low-income families [FY01].
• Turning Around Failing Schools: Arizona will receive $3.5 million in Title I Accountability Grants in 2001. President Clinton created the accountability fund to help turn around the worst performing schools through such measures as overhauling curriculum, improving staffing, or even closing schools and reopening them as charter schools.
• $177.1 Million in Pell Grants: This year [FY01], Arizona will receive $177.1 million in Pell Grants for low-income students going to college.
• Expanded Work-Study To Help More Students Work Their Way Through College: Arizona will receive $10.9 million in Work-Study funding in 2001 to help Arizona students work their way through college.
• Nearly 2,000 Have Served in Arizona through AmeriCorps: Since the National Service program began in 1993, 1,971 AmeriCorps participants have earned money for college while working in Arizona's schools, hospitals, neighborhoods or parks. [through 2/00]
• Tuition Tax Credits in Balanced Budget Open the Doors of College and Promote Lifelong Learning: The balanced budget included both President Clinton's $1,500 HOPE Scholarship to help make the first two years of college as universal as a high school diploma and a Lifetime Learning Tax Credit for college juniors, seniors, graduate students and working Americans pursuing lifelong learning to upgrade their skills. This 20% tax credit will be applied to the first $5,000 of tuition and fees through 2002 and to the first $10,000 thereafter. 138,000 students in Arizona will receive a HOPE Scholarship tax credit of up to $1,500. 169,000 students in Arizona will receive the Lifetime Learning Tax Credit. [fully phased-in FY2000 estimate]
• Expanded Job Training to Arizona's Dislocated Workers: President Clinton's FY 2001 budget would triple funding for the dislocated workers program over 1992 levels. Arizona received $14 million in 1999 to help 8,310 dislocated workers get the training and reemployment services they need to return to work as quickly as possible. And in FY 2000, Arizona will receive another $11.5 million to provide job training for dislocated workers.

• Juvenile Arrests Down in Arizona: Under the Clinton-Gore Administration, America has experienced the longest continuous drop in crime on record. Arizona's juvenile murder arrests have decreased 29% between 1992 and 1997. [FBI, Uniform Crime Report, 1992 and 1997]
• 2,654 More Police: The President's 1994 Crime Bill has funded 2,654 new police officers to date in communities across Arizona [through 1/01].
• Reducing Crime with Drug Courts: Working to reduce drug-related crime in Arizona, the Clinton Administration has awarded Drug Court grants to the communities of Peach Springs and Tucson. The Administration had previously awarded grants to a number of Arizona communities including: Campe Verde, Phoenix, Window Rock, Globe, Sacaton, Pascua Tribe, Salt River, Scottsdale and Yuma. Drug courts use the coercive power of the criminal justice system to combine drug testing, sanctions, supervision and treatment to push nonviolent, drug-abusing offenders to stop using drugs and committing crimes.
• $29.6 Million to Combat Domestic Violence: Through the Violence Against Women Act, Arizona has received approximately $29.6 million in federal funds to establish more women's shelters and bolster law enforcement, prosecution and victims' services. And in October 1999, the University of Arizona was awarded $421,006 to help address sexual assault, domestic violence, and stalking on campus. [through 9/2000]
• Nearly $969,000 in Grants for Battered Women and Children: In FY99, Arizona received nearly $969,000 in HHS's Family Violence Prevention Program grants to assist women and children fleeing domestic abuse.
• $7.1 Million to Keep Drugs & Violence Out of Arizona's Schools: Arizona receives $7.1 million in FY01 for the Safe & Drug Free Schools Program, which invests in school security and drug prevention programs.

• 106,225 Fewer People on Welfare: There are 106,225 fewer people on welfare in Arizona now than there were at the beginning of 1993 -- a 55% decrease. [through 6/99]
• Child Support Collections Up 207%: Child support collections have increased by over $96 million—or 207% -- in Arizona since FY92 [through FY98].
• Encouraging Responsible Choices—Preventing Teen Pregnancy in Arizona: Since 1993, President Clinton and Vice President Gore have supported innovative and promising teen pregnancy prevention strategies, with significant components of the strategy becoming law in the 1996 Personal Responsibility Act. The law requires unmarried minor parents to stay in school and live at home or in a supervised setting; encourages "second chance homes" to provide teen parents with the skills and support they need; and provides $50 million a year in new funding for state abstinence education activities. Efforts are making a difference, adolescent pregnancy rates and teen abortion rates are declining. And between 1991 and 1997, teen birth rates declined 13.6% in Arizona.
• $20.4 Million for Arizona Welfare-to-Work: In 1998, Arizona received $9 million in Federal welfare-to-work state formula grants (the state matched $4.5 million in funding), helping Arizona welfare recipients get and keep jobs. In addition, in 1999 and 1998 a total of $11.4 million in competitive grants were awarded to Arizona localities to support innovative welfare-to-work strategies. Part of the President's comprehensive efforts to move recipients from welfare to work, this funding was included in the $3 billion welfare to work fund in the 1997 Balanced Budget Act.
• Helping People Get to Work: Through the Access to Jobs initiative, the Clinton-Gore Administration is working with communities across the country to design transportation solutions to help welfare recipients and other low-income workers get to and from work. Maricopa County and Coolidge have received a total of $1.1 million this year to fund innovative transit projects.

• Health Care for Over 26,000 Uninsured Arizona Children: In 1997, President Clinton passed the largest single investment in health care for children since 1965 -- an unprecedented $24 billion over five years to cover as many as five million children throughout the nation. This investment guarantees the full range of benefits that children need to grow up strong and healthy. Two million children nationwide have health care coverage thanks to the President's plan, including 26,807 in Arizona. [HHS, Health Care Financing Administration, FY99 SCHIP enrollment data]
• More Toddlers Are Being Immunized: As a result of the President's 1993 Childhood Immunization Initiative, childhood immunization rates have reached an historic high. According to the CDC, 90% or more of America's toddlers received the most critical doses of each of the routinely recommended vaccines in 1996, 1997, and again in 1998 —surpassing the President's 1993 goal. In Arizona in 1998, 91% of two-year olds received the vaccines for diphtheria, tetanus, pertussis; 89% received the vaccine for polio; 88% received the vaccine for measles, and 90% received the vaccine for Haemophilus influenzae B, the bacteria causing a form of meningitis.
• Helping Over 142,000 Arizona Women and Children with WIC: The Clinton Administration is committed to full funding in the Special Nutrition Program for Women, Infants and Children (WIC). In FY99, Arizona received over $84.9 million in total WIC grant funding, helping 142,510 women, infants and children in need receive health and food assistance, 31,510 more than in 1994. [through 8/99]
• Funding for HIV/AIDS Assistance Programs: In FY 2000, Arizona will receive $2.6 million in Ryan White Title II formula grants. This funding provides people living with HIV and AIDS medical and support services. Also through the Ryan White Act, Arkansas will receive $5.2 million for state AIDS Drug Assistance Programs (ADAPs), which help those without insurance obtain much needed prescription drugs. There has been a tenfold increase in ADAP funding in the last four years, up from $52 million in 1996 to $528 million in 2000. [HHS, Health Resources and Services Administration, 4/7/00]
• Tobacco Plan Will Cut Smoking and Premature Deaths by 35% in Arizona: The Clinton Administration's tobacco proposal, combined with the recently enacted state tobacco settlements, will cut youth smoking and resulting premature deaths by 35% in Arizona by 2004. Between 2000 and 2004, 51,000 of Arizona's youth will be kept from smoking and 16,300 will be spared a premature tobacco-related death. [Treasury Dept., 2/99].
• 1,720,000 Americans in Arizona Cannot Be Assured They Have Patient Protections: Even if Arizona enacted all the protections in the Patients' Bill of Rights, 1,720,000 people in Arizona cannot be assured they have the comprehensive patient protections recommended by the President's Advisory Commission. This is because the Employee Retirement Income Security Act (ERISA) may preempt state-enacted protections. That is why the President has called on Congress to pass a federally enforceable patients' bill of rights so that everyone enrolled in managed care may have a basic set of protections. Notably, 830,000 Arizona women are in ERISA health plans and are therefore not necessarily protected. Women are particularly vulnerable without these protections because they are greater users of health care services, they make three-quarters of the health care decisions for their families, and they have specific health care needs addressed by a patients' bill of rights.

• Invested Nearly $880 Million in Arizona's Veterans: President Clinton and Vice President Gore are committed to caring for Arizona's 460,000 veterans. The Veterans Administration invested nearly $880 million in Arizona in 1999 alone. In 1999, 62,684 Arizona veterans received disability compensation or pension payments, more than 9,250 went to college on the GI Bill, and 16,081 bought a home using VA loan guarantees.
• Providing Health Care for Arizona's Veterans: Since 1993, the VA health system has increased the number of patients treated every year by over 29 percent; treated 83 percent more homeless patients; organized approximately 1,300 sites of care delivery under 22 Veterans Integrated Service Networks; and established more than 250 new community-based outpatient clinics. In Arizona, VA operates major medical centers in Phoenix, Prescott and Tucson. To provide better access to care for veterans, especially those living in rural areas, VA opened seven outpatient clinics in 1998-99 in Yuma, Show Low, Bellemont, Kingman, Safford, Casa Grande and Sierra Vista. In 1999, 69,600 veterans received health care in Arizona's VA facilities.

• 2 Toxic Waste Sites Cleaned Up in Arizona: Since 1993, the EPA has completed two Superfund toxic waste cleanups in Palo Verde and Phoenix, Arizona. Only one site was cleaned during the previous two administrations. [through 3/1/00]
• $7.9 Million in Safe Drinking Water Funding: This year [FY00], thanks to President Clinton, Arizona will receive $7.9 million for the Drinking Water State Revolving Funds to provide low-interest loans to municipalities to build, improve, and prevent pollution of drinking water systems.
• Revitalizing Brownfields Projects in Arizona: As part of the Clinton-Gore Administration's efforts to clean up Brownfields, the EPA has awarded grants to communities in Arizona—Navajo Nation, Phoenix, Tohono O'odham Nation, and Tucson—for environmental clean-up and economic revitalization. These projects are intended to jump-start local clean-up efforts by providing funds to return unproductive, abandoned, contaminated urban properties to productive use.

• Revitalizing Arizona's Communities: Phoenix and the Arizona Border were designated Enterprise Communities in December 1994 and were awarded $3 million each to create more jobs, housing, and economic opportunity for area residents. In 1999, Window Rock was named a Rural Enterprise Community.
• Expanding the Low-Income Housing Tax Credit Will Help Develop 1,100 To 1,300 New Affordable Housing Units in Arizona Over the Next 5 Years: Last year, the President and Vice President pushed for a 40-percent expansion in the Low-Income Housing Tax Credit. This year, the President and Vice President will try again to enact tax incentives to develop affordable housing. In Arizona alone, this proposal would mean an additional 1,100 - 1,300 quality rental housing units for low-income American families during the next five years.

• $134.3 Million in Federal Emergency Assistance: Since 1993, Arizona has received $134.3 million in disaster relief. [FEMA, 2/29/00]

• Over $1.2 Billion in Federal Highway Aid: Since 1993, Arizona has received over $1.2 billion in federal highway aid. This includes $58.5 million for emergency relief in response to natural disasters and $6.9 million for scenic byways. These funds have helped generate 51,875 jobs. [through FY99]
• Over $306.9 Million in Airport Improvement Program Funds: From FY93-FY99 Arizona received over $306.9 million in Airport Improvement Program funds to help build and renovate airports, and, when necessary, to provide funds for noise abatement to improve the quality of life for residents who live near airports.
• Over $302.3 Million in Transit Funds: The Federal Transit Administration has provided over $302.3 million in funding since 1993 to support public transportation in Arizona.

January 2001

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