By the time you read this we'll be en route back to Wisconsin following a week's vacation with friends from our church. They're snowbirds in Tucson, Arizona. This assumes the planes aren't grounded by the blizzard that was being predicted as I wrote this on Saturday.
It's no surprise that Arizona is having budget problems, too. Here are a couple of their solutions.
In March the state will close half their state parks. That includes the one we visited in Tubac, which is one of the first European settlements in the state. It's also where they published the state's first newspaper.
The park includes the remains of some of the early buildings and a fascinating display of maps showing how boundaries evolved over time. I also learned that parts of the Arizona territory were considered parts of the Confederacy during the Civil War. Texas diverted some of its troops to hold the territory which was still scattered with Union Army forts. This is something they neglected to teach, or something I forgot, from my education in the Texas public schools.
It's hard to say how that choice to open a western front changed the balance of forces elsewhere.
It's also hard to figure out how much they'll save from closing the park since I paid my admission fee to a volunteer.
Arizona has also had merit pay for teachers for a number of years. But some districts have decided that some teachers have become too meritorious and they can no longer afford higher salaries.
Even though they don't have to pay for snow removal down here.
