Former attorney general Terry Goddard: ‘It’s time Arizona just concentrated on being Arizona’

Terry Goddard, former attorney general of Arizona and mayor of Phoenix, took a look ahead at the future of the state while on the Bruce St. James Show Monday.

“If we have a major failing as a state, it’s we’re always looking to be somebody else,” Goddard said. “It’s time Arizona just concentrated on being Arizona.”

He said the state is in a good place going forward, but that it needs to stop “picking fights” with other states and the federal government.

Goddard said he is encouraged by recent successes in the state that should translate to a more stable economy.

“I never would have thought that Arizona would get out of the housing crisis as quickly as (it) did,” Goddard said, pointing out that only Nevada was hit harder during the housing crisis, and it’s still struggling to recover.

Goddard also said that Arizona should take advantage of where it’s located geographically.

“We need to enjoy and prosper from where we are, and by that I mean specifically the Mexican and Canadian trade route,” he said. “We’re right in the dead center of it. We’ve got tremendous opportunities (in the state’s relationship with Mexico).”

As a current board member of the Central Arizona Water Conservation District, Goddard has unique insight in the role the state’s water supply will play in its stability and its economy.

“Arizona’s done a terrific job in looking ahead and planning for a water future that is secure,” he said, “but there are lots of threats to that, including one of the most extraordinary droughts that we’ve seen in the Colorado (River) Basin ever.”

He again pointed to Nevada for its struggles in this area, saying that Arizona is in a better place.

Goddard also praised the state’s legislature for a recent deal that helps secure its water outlook.

“Just recently, the state’s political leadership pulled together and basically saved the Navajo Generating Station…which helps bring affordable water to central Arizona.”