By Phil Riske, Managing Editor | Rose Law Group Reporter
Former Arizona Senate President John Greene, who also served as director of the Department of Revenue, died today at the age of 65.
He was fun to interview, with a sharp sense of humor, always denying he was a hardcore politician.
In 2006, John Greene joined the “circus.” He was one of six Republican candidates for governor, and as the field grew he foresaw a wild campaign.
“This could turn it into a circus,” he told me in an interview for Arizona Capitol Times.
Greene later withdrew from the primary and the race to kick Governor Janet Napolitano out of office.
“The governor’s honeymoon is officially over,” he told me. A fiscal conservative, Greene said Napolitano’s administration had failed to deal with the future of education, border issues, health care and transportation infrastructure and is responsible for “uncontrolled spending.”
“They believe the future is today,” he said “It’s almost like Paris Hilton is a spending consultant to the 9th Floor.”
Illegal immigration was the push-button issue in 2006. Everyone had an answer for the problem and what not to do, as well.
Greene said sealing the border with thousands of additional agents, concrete posts and other types of fences and obstacles would not work.
“Coyotes [illegal immigrant smugglers] will learn how to fly helicopters if they have to,” he said.
“The only way to effectively stop illegal immigration of workers is to take the incentives away from those crossing our borders illegally and from the employers who reap ill-gotten gains by hiring undocumented workers and paying them substandard wages,” Greene told me.
“Realistically, change may need to be gradual, perhaps over a one-or-two-year period because undocumented workers have become so engrained in certain key industries. The goal is simple, however: There should not be a single undocumented worker in America by 2007.”
Greene proposed the Department of Public Safety form a new division to help secure the border. It would be staffed by active off-duty and retired police officers, firefighters, correctional officers, paramedics, and retired military police and federal agents.
Arizona will miss this dedicated, charming leader.
See: Former Senate president John Greene dies; our prayers for the family
