The Water Infrastructure Finance Authority of Arizona is an independent entity authorized to finance the construction, rehabilitation and/or improvement of drinking water, waste water, waste water reclamation, and other water quality facilities/projects. As a “Bond Bank”, WIFA is authorized to issue water quality bonds on behalf of communities for basic water infrastructure. Generally, WIFA offers borrowers below market interest rates on loans for 100% of eligible project costs.

The Water Infrastructure Finance Authority of Arizona implements three types of technical assistance:
1. Project Technical Assistance – Planning and Design Assistance Grants assist an individual drinking water or wastewater system to conceive, plan, design, or develop an infrastructure project.
2. Policy Technical Assistance – Policy TA includes studies, surveys and other types of reports that provide benefit to a range of drinking water and wastewater systems statewide.
3. Operational Technical Assistance – The Arizona Department of Environmental Quality manages this program to provide assistance to individual drinking water and wastewater systems to improve facility operations.

The Drinking Water State Revolving Fund IUP describes WIFA’s plan to utilize various sources of funds to finance drinking water infrastructure and support related program activities during the State FY funding cycle from July 1 through June 30. This plan is a required element of the grant application documentation to obtain the grant award. Arizona herewith submits its IUP for the funds available to Arizona for the purposes of continuing the development, implementation and administration of the DWSRF program in Arizona.

The Intended Use Plan describes WIFA’s plan to utilize various sources of funds to finance clean water infrastructure and support related activities during the State FY funding cycle from July 1 through June 30. This plan is a required element of the grant application documentation to obtain the grant award for the purposes of continuing the development, implementation and administration of the Clean Water State Revolving Fund program in Arizona.

The Water Infrastructure Finance Authority of Arizona is an independent agency of the state of Arizona established to finance the construction, rehabilitation, and improvement of drinking water, wastewater, wastewater reclamation, and other water quality projects. WIFA operates as a “bond bank” and has the authority to issue bonds on behalf of communities for basic water infrastructure.

This study investigated whether highways acted as barriers to gene flow for pronghorn in northern Arizona. DNA samples from 132 pronghorn were analyzed using eight polymorphic microsatellite loci. Samples represented animals living on opposite sides of US Route 89 (US 89) and State Route 64 (SR 64). Two different modeling approaches indicated that both US 89 and SR 64, and to a lesser extent US Route 180 (US 180), acted as barriers to gene flow. The genetic structuring caused by highways, especially across US 89, is consistent with behavioral data that demonstrated pronghorn rarely cross this highway. This study found no evidence of inbreeding or reduced genetic variation in any of the populations examined, but those effects may take longer to appear. Based on these results, the researchers recommend future genetic monitoring of these populations or assessment of genetic variation across highways with larger traffic volumes or longer histories to determine whether the barrier effects documented here lead to loss of genetic diversity.

The Arizona transportation history project was conceived in anticipation of Arizona’s centennial, which will be celebrated in 2012. Following approval of the Arizona Centennial Plan in 2007, the Arizona Department of Transportation recognized that the centennial celebration would present an opportunity to inform Arizonans of the crucial role that transportation has played in the growth and development of the state.

The report consists of a historical narrative and a series of topical essays. The seven-chapter historical narrative is a history of Arizona’s highways that extends from the pre-Columbian era to the present. The 14 topical essays extend the scope of the history beyond the state’s highway system. They include overviews of the development of other transportation modes (railroads, aviation, and urban transit), a brief history of highway pavements, a lighthearted look at the motoring experience during the 1920s and 1930s, and an exploration of how changes in transportation infrastructure affected some Arizona communities. The topical essays also provide additional historical information on bridges, urban freeways, the Interstate system, ADOT and its predecessor agencies, and famous roads such as U.S. Route 66, U.S. Route 89, the Black Canyon Highway, and the Beeline Highway.

The report also includes a timeline of transportation-related developments. This chronology not only provides an accessible overview of Arizona’s transportation history; it also places that history in a larger context by including transportation-related developments from the rest of the nation and around the world. Finally, the report contains a guide to archives in Arizona that hold significant collections of historical photographs related to the state’s transportation history, a bibliography of published historical sources related to the history of highways in Arizona, and a discussion of how the historical narrative and topical essays could be used to produce publications and media that would be made available to the public.

Because of the urgency of workforce issues and the desire to begin a statewide discussion about workforce goals and choices, the Governor’s Council on Workforce Policy wanted to understand if, and how, program governance and organization are hampering progress and what changes might be beneficial. The council asked Morrison Institute for Public Policy (School of Public Affairs, College of Public Programs, Arizona State University) to: (1) Explore the strengths and weaknesses of the organization of Arizona’s workforce system, particularly at the state level (2) Review how other states have revamped their systems and connected workforce and economic development (3) Recommend options for improving Arizona’s system During the second half of 2003, Morrison Institute for Public Policy talked with more than 60 workforce professionals, business people, and workforce board members across Arizona either individually or in small groups, researched other states’ approaches through interviews with officials in other states and national organizations, analyzed responses to an online survey of selected local workforce investment board members, and reviewed a wide variety of materials on economic, workforce, and community development. This report is the first of many steps for Arizona to reflect and act on workforce development governance and its system, because as Thurgood Marshall said, "You can’t stand still. You must move, and if you don’t move, they will run over you."