Brewer lays hands on stimulus money, turns it into jobs creator

by David Safier

It's a miracle! The Republicans love to remind us government has never created a single job and federal stimulus money is a budget busting job killer. But Jan Brewer performed a miracle of near biblical proportions, transforming fetid stimulus water into fine job-producing wine.

In July 2010, Gov. Jan Brewer was in Tucson posing for photos with a giant check, as she awarded a $1.5 million state grant of federal stimulus to the University of Arizona's high-tech business incubator.

 The money went to the Arizona Center for Innovation at the UA Science and Technology Park in the form of a huge check Brewer displayed proudly. And she couldn't be happier with what the center has accomplished or what the government money will help it accomplish in the future.

Brewer said she expects the center's work to pay dividends as Arizona enters its second century.

"It's an investment to bring novel technologies to the marketplace, create high-wage jobs and to expand and diversify Southern Arizona's economy," the governor said.

"You never know who, among the center's current clients, next year might be the next Burr-Brown (Corp.) or Ventana Medical Systems," Brewer said, citing two homegrown Tucson high-tech firms that grew into major economic engines.

Brewer also applauded the business and job expansion at Bombadier in Tucson, which used an earlier $220,000 grant to grow its business.