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>>> Coming up next on "Arizona
Horizon," the Governor calls a
special session of the
legislature after lawmakers fail
to pass a bill on Medicaid
expansion.
We'll have the latest in our
weekly legislative update with
the "Arizona Capitol Times."
>>> And a Tempe company working
to make computer chips and other
electronics more efficient.
And we'll learn about a local
effort to get biorubber from a
desert plant.
Next on "Arizona Horizon."
>>> "Arizona Horizon" is made
possible by contributions from
the Friends of Eight, members of
your Arizona PBS station.
Thank you.
>>> Good evening, and welcome to
"Arizona Horizon," I'm Ted
Simons.
The Governor calls a special
session of the legislature to
push lawmakers into quicker
action on Medicaid expansion and
the budget.
Here with the latest, Luige del
Puerto with the "Arizona Capital
Times."
Luige, was this a surprise?
>> It was a complete surprise.
We had expected that after
Speaker Andy Tobin said we're
not going to meet Wednesday, we
meet on Thursday, and Andy Biggs
said we'll not meet on Thursday,
we'll meet on Monday, we
expected nothing would happen on
the Medicaid expansion front on
the budget this week.
Lo and behold, yesterday
afternoon the Governor called
for a special session.
The call landed in our mailbox
p.m.
That call for a special session
p.m. today.
>> Now, get down there now.
>> And this after Speaker Andy
Tobin basically adjourned the
House until Thursday.
Why did he do that?
>> There are theories that he
may be trying to buy time to
work on his proposal to get his
budget out.
He's been working to try and get
31 Republicans to support his
proposal.
The other speculation is he's
starting to poke the Governor's
eye and maybe pulling her chain
a little bit, and the governor
poked back.
>> And President Andy Biggs of
the Senate adjourned until next
week?
>> Their plan was to meet today
and adjourn until Monday.
So they are not going to meet on
Thursday.
>> The Governor is tired of the
delays, find out we're not going
to do this until tomorrow.
As of a minute ago I want you
down here for a special session.
>> Talk to me about what a
special session is and how much
control the Governor has, how
much control the legislature
has.
>> It's really just like a
regular session, except that
they usually decide if they want
to fast-track the passage of
certain issues.
They used to do special sessions
to pass the budget.
It's quicker to pass it that way
and you can immediately spark
the time frame where the budget
takes effect.
It's true for other bills they
have done before.
You do a special session to do
it.
In this particular case the
Governor has to proclaim special
session, and specify what she
wants to be included or tackled
in that special session.
In this case she said it would
be the budget and it would be
Medicaid expansion.
Now, of cours,e, the
Constitution essentially
requires the legislature to meet
when the governor makes that
request for a special session.
But there's no requirement for
them to do anything.
The Governor can call them to a
special session, they could go
into a special session and sit
there and not do anything.
>> Some sat there, and some
apparently did and not do
anything, at least as protest
for the opening night.
Still, the votes are there for
Medicaid expansion.
So you can sit there and do
nothing, but something's going
to happen.
>> Yes.
What's really telling last night
is that the House and Senate
leadership did accede to the
Governor's request for a special
session.
They were the ones, Speaker Andy
Tobin and Andy Biggs are the
ones that presided over the
chambers.
There is pressure on them.
They are against Medicaid
expansion.
That tells you there was
pressure on them to accede to
the Governor's request, and at
the end of the day they said, if
you get the votes we'll make it
happen.
>> Basically do their jobs.
>> Yes.
>> Speaking of their jobs, there
were rumors all over they might
lose their jobs, in terms of
leadership.
>> How close did it come to
literally a palace coup in the
House similar to the Senate, and
maybe one in the Senate, both
leaders, Biggs and Tobin being
shown the door?
>> This is the first time we've
heard rumors about ousting Andy
Tobin.
We were really surprised
yesterday to hear speculation
about a potential plan to oust
Speaker Andy Tobin.
The Governor can compel the
leaders and the legislature to
meet in a special session, but
she cannot really force them to
do anything during that special
session.
There was this supposed plan to
go ahead, and if it came to
that, replace the two leaders to
ensure the Governor gets what
she wants.
>> Which you could do with a
simple majority?
>> It would be 31 in the House
and 16 in the Senate.
They are voting for a new Senate
President and new speaker.
>> Were there new ones lined up
ready to go?
>> Well, the other things that's
telling is that the budget bills
that were introduced yesterday
were introduced by Frank Pratt
in the House and Steve Pierce in
the Senate.
The speculation, the rumor,
however you want to put it, they
were prepared to go ahead and
take over from Mr. Biggs and Mr.
Tobin.
>> Okay.
You've got all this going on and
the governor calls a special
session.
Some lawmakers are upset because
their dinner was interrupted and
these sorts of things.
What was the response from Biggs
and Tobin?
>> It was pretty acerbic.
They were not happy.
That's an understatement.
They basically accused her of
being impetuous.
Essentially hijacking the budget
process and forcing them to do
something and intervening in
what should be a process that
belongs to the House and the
Senate.
>> But certainly you would think
that they would have to know by
these adjournments and
stretching it out and stretching
it out, at some point someone's
going to say enough's enough.
>> Again, you're saying that
Tobin in the House was perhaps
buying time, perhaps hoping to
cool some people off a little
bit and maybe address it on
Thursday?
I guess the Governor's office
said enough's enough.
>> Yeah.
And obviously the Governor has
the votes to pass her budget and
to pass Medicaid expansion and
to a certain extent this has
been -- played on for a number
of weeks.
The Governor finally decided
that's it.
Let's get this done.
>> Last point on this: None of
this happens if there isn't a
coalition of Republicans and
almost all Democrats, I guess,
together working side by side,
if you will, in the kind of
cooperation many haven't seen in
a while down there.
Talk to us about the coalition.
Who's involved and who's left
out on the sidelines.
>> This coalition of Republicans
and all of the Democrats in both
the House and the Senate, the
Republicans are essentially the
members of the so-called main
extreme wing of the Republican
caucus.
They are viewed to be more
pragmatic, less ideological
about their stances on issues.
We've seen this caucus
essentially emerge on certain
crucial votes before, on
immigration for example, the
immigration debate a few years
ago.
Some of the budget bills we've
seen a few years ago.
Now we are seeing them again.
To a certain extent this, split
within the caucus is really just
being reaffirmed by what we are
seeing now.
Folks like John Mccommis in the
Senate for example, and Mr.
Pratt in the house, for example,
guys that live in districts that
may be called swing districts.
They are considered to be, like
I said, more mainstream than the
rest of their caucus.
>> One representative had an
interesting quote, the most
effective Democratic governor in
Arizona history.
They are throwing spitballs at
her, they are not happy.
>> Making that comment was
probably being very gracious.
Some of the tweets, the comments
that we've seen are just really
acerbic, really harsh.
>> Luige, thanks for joining us.
>> Thank you.
>>> Tonight's focus on Arizona
technology and innovation looks
at Desert Silicon, a Tempe-based
company that supplies materials
and services to the semi
conductor industry for use in
the development of integrated
circuits and other high-tech
items.
Joining usnous is Tom Brown,
president of Desert Silicon.
>> Give me a better definition
of what your company does.
>>> We make coatings for wafers.
Typical devices make 70 to 100
different coatings, level by
level by level.
If we can make one of those
levels a little better we can
improve the efficiency, give
greater yield, make things work
better, give better performance.
>> So it's either specialty
coatings for these wafers.
>> Yes.
>> Tell us why a wafer would
need a specialty coating.
>> For example, LED lighting is
a high-growth industry right
now.
They are looking at putting LED
lights in homes and other
places.
If you match the refractive
index of a bottom layer with a
top layer, you let more light go
through.
So we have new technology that
makes that work better.
We can improve the efficiency of
lighting by about 15%, a really
big difference for LED lighting.
>> This is the process --
correct me if I'm wrong -- the
process is called spin-on
coating.
What is that?
>> To me it's almost like magic,
really, really interesting.
You take a liquid in a bottle
and pour it on a wafer that's
spinning.
It turns from a wafer to solid
glass.
We can make different types of
glass that give different
properties to these wafers.
>> How thin a wafer and how thin
of glass?
>> Like a hundred microns or
something.
Much, much smaller, very, very
thin layers.
>> These will eventually be used
in phones and tablets.
>> It can be used in everything.
We have companies using them to
make better health care devices,
companies that are making new
energy conversion devices.
One company wants to take the
heat from a muffler and change
that to electricity.
So you could replace the
alternator on a car for example.
>> Interesting idea.
>> You have stuff here with you
now.
What are we looking at now as
far as -- now --
>> So this is a silicon wafer.
It has a thin coating on it.
And sometimes you can see it a
little better on the back of the
wafer.
>> That's spun on, as it were?
>> This is put on by a more
traditional method, but this is
an example.
We can create these same types
of layers with the spin-on
material.
>> Okay.
What else you got over there?
>> A different -- same type of
thing only a little different
layer, because it has a
different color to it.
The colors vary by how thick the
layers are.
It's like a scale on a butterfly
wing.
They have different reflections
depending on how thick they are.
This is very similar to that.
>> Interesting.
Does your company have a
factory?
Does have it a lab?
How are they produced?
How is this spun-on coating
done?
>> For several years we worked
out of my partner's garage.
He has a big garage on his
property and we have worked to
make materials there.
We have an investment from Max
6, a business incubator, and Max
6 really believes in conscious
capitalism, creating honorable
businesses in the state of
Arizona.
And so we work with Max 6 to --
they have funded us and given us
space to work.
We will get a year of free rent
in one of their facilities, and
we're building a laboratory to
make a larger expansion where we
can produce larger quantities of
our chemicals.
>> How much room would you need
for this kind of expansion?
>> Our materials are relatively
expensive, a small bottle may
cost a little over $1,000.
We don't need a lot of space.
We have may be 4,000 square feet
of manufacturing space, enough
to make lot of material.
>> Let's say Ted's Tablet
Company, I call you and I say, I
need something to improve the
performance of my tablets.
You say --
>> On our website we have a page
called designer glass.
So someone can call us up
exactly like you said.
They might say, we want to have
a different refractive index to
better match, or a high
dialectic constant.
A local company asked for high
dialectic constant materials.
We go to our laboratory and
create and design a new material
that would work better for their
process.
>> Do you work mostly with big
companies, small companies?
>> A lot of small companies
where new innovations are
coming, we spend a lot of time
with them.
>> As far as Arizona is
concerned, you're basing this
company, your space is in Tempe,
correct?
>> That's correct.
>> Talk about Arizona and the
opportunities, the high-tech
opportunities we have here in
the Valley and in the state as a
whole.
>> We feel like we have a really
important role because a number
of years ago, if you wanted to
have really creative people,
what you might do is have a lot
of machine shops where they
ground metal and made things
very precise and exact.
Today we live in a different
environment.
High-tech companies need new
materials, and that's what we
provide.
We feel like we're an important
part of the Arizona business
ecosystem.
We can help new companies get
new innovative materials, they
can have a giant step up ahead
of other people because of what
they are doing.
We have orders this week, from
India, and another country -- we
have them from all over the
world.
But we do focus a lot over
Arizona, also.
>> And that I think helps quite
a bit, I would imagine.
>> They do.
You know, no one talks about
this, but having a small
business at times can be kind of
a lonely job.
You're trying to create
something new, taking it to the
rest of the world.
Sometimes they love you,
sometimes they hate you.
It's a good thing to be with
others trying to do the same
thing.
You can encourage each other and
build on each other's work.
>> Thank you so much, sounds
like you've got things going
there.
>> Good to have you here.
>> All right, thank you very
much.
>> Get the inside scoop on
what's happening at Arizona PBS.
Become an Eight Insider.
You'll receive weekly updates on
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today.
>>> The Bridgestone Corporation
broke ground on a new research
facility in Mesa to produce bio
rubber from a desert plant.
>> Good to have you here.
>> Thanks for having me.
>> Bridgestone, a tire rubber
company, what are they building
again?
>> There's actually two
components to the project.
There's the bio rubber research
process center which we built in
Mesa.
Also an agricultural corporation
to be built down in Eloi.
It's a multimillion-dollar
investment for Bridgestone to
explore guayule as a source of
rubber.
It'll help Bridgestone meet the
growing global demand for
rubber, and relieve some of the
reliance on the tree that's
currently the primary source for
rubber production today.
Down in Eloi they will cultivate
the plant, just like a shrub.
They will ship it to Mesa, the
feed stock will be used in the
processing center.
It'll be located on
approximately 10 acres of
property just a couple miles
east of the Phoenix Gateway
Airport.
Probably most importantly it'll
support 40 high-wage jobs.
>> We're looking at the plant
right here.
This is the site for the
research center?
>> That's correct.
>> And the center should
eventually look like a pretty
nice high-tech operation,
correct?
>> Over time they hope to
expand.
If they can improve the
commercial scalability of the
process they look to do a
full-grown production facility.
>> Where is the plant naturally
found?
>> It's around here somewhere?
>> It's all over in New Mexico,
northern Mexico, and Arizona.
>> And how does it become
rubber?
We're not being too technical
about it.
>> I'm not the guy for the
technical stuff.
My understanding is there's a
natural presence of rubber
within the bark of the shrub.
The process extracts that rubber
from the plant and it can be
used in products like shoes,
tires and whatnot.
>> And cheaper to make than
synthetic rubber or more
environmentally --
>> I think that's the challenge.
If they can produce it at a
price that's competitive, it'll
start to relieve some of the
reliance on the havea tree, the
current primary source of
rubber.
>> This is what we call the Mesa
Gateway area.
>> By the airport.
>> Correct.
>> Is it under development?
>> We have a lot of things going
on down there right now.
A freeway under construction,
State Route 24.
Our airport is growing like gang
busters.
>> Sure, sure.
>> And this is just a couple
miles east.
>> Tell us about state route 24.
>> What's being built is really
the first extension of State
Route 24 from Loop 202 to about
Ellsworth road if you're
familiar with the area.
>> Going north?
>> Going south.
It'll be right to the east side
of the airport.
>> Isn't First Solar and Fuji
Film in the vicinity?
>> Fuji is right across the
street from the location of the
Bridgestone plant.
>> How many jobs?
>> 40 to start.
We hope to see the job growth
come, as well.
>> High-wage jobs, so above
average wages and they will
primarily be technicians and
researchers.
Those are the types of jobs
we're trying to grow in Mesa,
that's very much in line with
our strategy which we
affectionately call Mesa HEATT,
health care, education,
aerospace, technology and
tourism.
>> Give us some more information
here as to what the goal is, and
what the process has been and
what you've got going so far.
>> Yeah.
So you probably have heard about
our education initiative which
recently resulted in five
high-quality higher learning
institutions coming to Mesa.
Albright College, Westminster,
Wilkes University, Bendectin
University, and Iowa University.
They are a strategy to
complement our workforce effort.
>>> We believe there are sectors
within the healthcare umbrella
that are really strong, the
opportunity to Mesa, and we look
to take advantage of that.
>> Has it been easy to convince
the Mesa folks?
>> I'm glad you brought that up.
We are extremely fortunate to
have the mayor and council we
have right now.
They are very forward thinking.
They have set the economic
strategy for us, Mesa HEATT.
Some of these products, like
Bridgestone, provides a certain
comfort level for companies to
make this investment in our
community, they will not be just
supported they will be
celebrated in Mesa.
>> Tell us why Bridgestone --
have they had a presence in
Arizona in the past?
>> I'm sure there's been some
retail presence.
As far as a research facility,
I'm not sure.
Why they chose Mesa, these big
investment decisions there are
always a variety of factors.
The guayule shrub is grown
there.
But also, the East Valley boasts
a very deep and talented
workforce.
They can meet the immediate
workforce needs and future human
capital needs.
Water, sewer, gas and electric
was all at this site.
Bridgestone could be starting
right away and could meet the
deadlines set by the company for
the investment.
>> I'm sure Mesa residents would
especially want to know about
incentives.
Did it cost the city -- How much
to get them to that location?
>> No tax incentives involved,
there's no fee waivers involved
whatsoever.
It's a relatively underdeveloped
portion of the city, surrounded
by large industrial users.
The only thing we were able to
work out with Bridgestone, they
asked for a temporary deferral
of street improvements on
Mountain Road, and the City
Council supported that.
That's really the only deal
point we had as a project.
It's a great project all around.
>> When does the first Bunsen
burner fire up out there?
When does the research start?
>> They hope to have the
facility operational by 2014 and
hope to have their first rubber
trial run in 2015.
>> Sounds like fascinating
stuff, a lot going on in Mesa.
>> Thanks for joining us.
>> Thanks for having us.
>> Thursday on "Arizona Horizon"
we'll look at a survey that asks
rural educators what they need
to teach science and math.
And we'll learn about a book
that chronicles the oral history
of the Yavapai Nation.
That's on the next "Arizona
Horizon."
That is it for now, I'm Ted
Simons, thank you so much for
joining us.
You have a great evening.
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