Rep. Tom Prezelski represents District 29 in Tucson.

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Let county use funds to foil identity thieves

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Komatsu Equipment Co
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RANCHO RESORT
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Everready Glass
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We are all familiar with the growth of identity theft. Most of us even know someone who has been a victim. We also know that, for various reasons, this crime is a particular problem in Arizona.

Fortunately, the Arizona Legislature recognizes this problem, and is poised to pass Senate Bill 1169, which would protect our citizens from identity theft by requiring county recorders to redact Social Security numbers from public records, where they could otherwise be easily viewed by those with ill intentions.

Unfortunately, the bill applies only to Maricopa County. Residents of Arizona's 14 other counties would not be protected by this legislation.

It happened like this. SB 1169 originally covered everyone in Arizona. Many of the state's county recorders pointed out that the expense of complying with this legislation would break their budgets.

In Pima County, for example, the estimated $1.9 million cost of going back through all the public records is nearly as much as the recorder's entire annual budget.

None of the county recorders objected to the bill, they merely wanted to make sure that they had the resources to do the job properly.

As the largest county in Arizona, Maricopa County is more than able to cover these costs. So, instead of agreeing to appropriate the estimated $4.8 million it would take to make sure that all of our state's citizens were protected, the Phoenix-centric leadership in the Legislature simply amended the bill to exclude every county except Maricopa.

Aside from this being an illustration of the Legislature's typical cheapskate behavior, even when it involves public safety, it is also an example of another affliction at the Capitol, namely an attitude best characterized as geographic chauvinism. If the needs of Maricopa County are taken care of, they believe, so are those of the state of Arizona.

Issues peculiar to our largest county, even those that can and should be settled locally, dominate our legislative agenda, while problems outside the Phoenix conurbation are dismissed as merely parochial, getting due attention only by dint of great effort by "out-of-county" legislators.

Arizona ranks No. 1 for identity theft. While it makes sense that much of this activity and the efforts to fight it would be centered in our largest county, this is a statewide problem and the two million Arizonans who have the good fortune of living outside of Maricopa County deserve the protection of the law as well.

The legislative leaders may well congratulate themselves for striking a blow against this insidious crime, but they would do well to remember that the Legislature is supposed to act in the best interests of the state as a whole, not just those of one county.