Laurie Roberts
The Republic | azcentral.com
The Arizona Legislature is about to take aim at the state's history – or at least public access to that history.
A routine proposal to extend the life of the Arizona Historical Society for another 10 years has been slashed to two years, a move that the state historian says could be "a death knell" to the agency that operates seven museums around the state.
Marshall Trimble says he's puzzled by why the Legislature would want to stick it to the Historical Society, which collects, preserves and showcases the history of Arizona and the west.
"Our history is one of the most unique and colorful in the entire 50 states," he said. "Our story is so important to the state. We are a place that lives by our legends and our history."
Sen. Gail Griffin, the senator pushing a two-year rather than 10-year extension, says she wants to make sure that the agency corrects longstanding problems identified in a state audit last fall before giving it a longer life.
"I'm on their side," Griffin, R-Hereford, told me. "The issues that were brought up were serious concerns. I just want to make sure those concerns are taken care of."
The audit noted that the Historical Society needs to do a better job fund raising and managing its collection, problems that were also identified in state audits in 1995 and 1998.
Problems that I'm quite sure will be so much easier, now that the agency faces the possibility of extinction in two years.
The Arizona Historical Society was established in 1864 by the First Territorial Legislature. Arizona's leaders, in those days, understood that they were making history and that it was important to preserve a record of that history.
Among its 1.2 million artifacts are Geronimo's rifle and Wyatt Earp's shotgun and jewelry made in a Japanese-American internment camp in Arizona. There, you can learn about the people, places and events that shaped this state.
For now anyway.
The Historical Society – already by hobbled by budget cuts -- is due to sunset on July 1. After reviewing the agency's sunset audit, a House-Senate committee last fall recommended that it be reauthorized for another 10 years.
The 10-year extension breezed through the House. But Griffin amended the bill in the Senate, to terminate the agency in 2016.
It's now up to the House whether to go along with Griffin's plan.
Trimble, who has volunteered his services as state historian for nearly two decades, called Griffin's proposal "mean-spirited and really severe."
"The historical society doesn't deserve this kind of treatment," he said. "In recent years the Legislature has cut the budget in half and reduced the staff at AHS from 75 to 25 while at the same time insisting on unrealistic accountability on the part of the staff."
He says the historical society is already feeling the effects of Griffin's move. The family of the late Paul Harvey, a radio icon who lived part of each year in Phoenix, was set to donate his papers to the Arizona Historical Society, Trimble says. As a result of the Griffin's move to cut its lifespan to two years, he says the family has put that donation on hold.
He says fund raising also is being affected as donors wonder whether the agency will be around after 2016.
Trimble is hoping the Legislature comes to its senses. But then, he looks at what's happened to the state's parks, which have never recovered from a legislative gutting a few years ago.
"I see a pattern here among some of the people who have power down there," he said. "They think these things are not important. It really saddens me. I broke in as a young historian with John Hays and Joe Lane and Carl Kunasek and Stan Turley. … They really cared about Arizona and I don't feel there are enough of them down there that feel that way anymore."
Sadly, he's right. A lot of our leaders today are ideologues, interested in a good fight with the feds over state's rights.
But the state? Not so much.
