Anyone who has lived in Arizona for a while knows that the 5 C’s
are copper, cattle, cotton, citrus and climate. All 5 of these were the core of
Arizona’s economy when it first became a state, and all of them are still a major
part of the economy today, although less so then they were in 1912.
In terms of employment, though, the top 5 industries today would
be the unpronounceable acronym of TGPLF, which stand for trade, government,
professional and business services, leisure and hospitality, and financial
activity.
One of the reasons that tariffs are always a bad idea is that
Arizona exports $9 billion a year to Mexico, and over $2 billion a year to
Canada. The state also exports over $1 billion a year to China. Overall,
Arizona exports 22% of all the exports produced in the United States.
The Arizona Office of Tourism is still enamored of the glamour
of “the old West”, since the office considers the major industries to be manufacturing,
mining and tourism.
Flying “under the radar” are a few surprising facts about the
state’s economy:
1)
Arizona was ranked
first in the United States by the Solar Energy Industries Association in terms
of employment per capita in the solar energy industry in 2012. The Arizona Commerce
Authority cited more than 300 days of sunshine a year and a renewable
energy tax incentive program that offered up to a 10 percent credit on income
taxes and a 75 percent tax reduction on property taxes.
2)
Bioscience is a
rapidly growing industry in Arizona, and it currently employs 100,000 people.
3)
High tech manufacturing (including
defense) is also a rapidly growing industry. One example of this manufacturing
is a company formerly known as Hughes Missile Systems Co. Today, it’s known as
Raytheon, and it is the world’s largest supplier of guided missiles.
Today, there are some interesting twists to the copper mining industry in Arizona . As recently as 2007, Arizona was still the leading copper producing state in the country. As of 2012, there were 10 active copper mines in the state, and another mine (the Resolution Copper project) is still under consideration, but not without controversy. Part of the controversy about the Resolution project is that it is a joint venture owned by two foreign companies. More importantly, the mine would destroy an area set aside in 1955 by President Dwight D. Eisenhower which is sacred to the San Carlos Apache Indian Reservation. Both the Oak Flat Campground, an area dotted with petroglyphs and historic and prehistoric sites, and the steep cliffs at Apache Leap would be affected. In July 2015, a march protesting the land swap arrived in Washington DC.
Another little known fact is that Winston
Churchill has a connection to the former mining town of Jerome, Arizona. When
Jerome was just a small mining camp, financing was needed to pull the copper
out of the ground. New York financier Eugene Jerome provided the financing, but
never visited the town. He was a nephew of Leonard Jerome, who was Jennie
Jerome’s father. When Jennie married Lord Randolph Churchill, their first child
was named Winston Churchill, and he went on to become the Prime Minister of
England – twice.
Jerome, incidentally, is just one of the many
“ghost towns” in Arizona, Jerome has numerous ghosts, including a spectral cat
that is still seen by guests at the Mile High Inn today.
If “the spirit moves you”, you can also
explore the rest of the Arizona ghost towns in a book titled, “Arizona Ghost
Towns and Mining Camps”
No comments:
Post a Comment