Sen. John McCain has endorsed SB 1070, the illegal-immigration omnibus legislation that the Arizona Senate is scheduled to vote on this afternoon.

Politico reports:

Sen. John McCain has endorsed a tough Arizona anti-immigration bill that will let police arrest people who aren’t carrying identification, the latest move in McCain’s rightward shift in advance of a tough Republican Senate primary this summer.

“I think it’s a very important step forward,” McCain said Monday. “I can fully understand why the legislature would want to act.”

It’s a dramatic switch for a senator who supported comprehensive immigration reform with Democratic lion Sen. Ted Kennedy (D-Mass.) just four years ago. McCain is facing a primary challenge from the right in former Rep. J.D. Hayworth.

Under the Arizona law, which passed the state House last week and is expected to be signed by Gov. Jan Brewer (R), police can arrest anyone

• MARGARET ZANGER
• Jim Pagles demonstrates an old fashion printing press.

Written by Marissa Hopkins/El Independiente

Following the closure of state parks that started Feb. 22, some Arizona communities are stepping in to keep their parks open.

The Arizona State Parks Board voted March 18 to allow four state parks to enter into management agreements with outside groups, said Ellen Bilbrey, public information officer.

Management agreements are pending for the town of Camp Verde to keep Fort Verde State Historic Park open for one year, and the city of Yuma has proposed to manage Yuma Territorial Prison State Historic Park for three years.

Also, the city of Tombstone would keep Tombstone Courthouse State Historic Park running for three years.

The fourth, Riordan Mansion State Historic Park, would be kept open for three years by the Arizona Historical Society, Bilbrey said.

We mentioned last week that UA economists informed us that the state will save more than 13,000 jobs if voters pass a temporary, one-cent sales tax on May 18.

An analysis done by UA Eller School of Management economist Alberta Charney notes that passage of the sales tax is not without consequence. Assuming that people will buy fewer goods if the cost is 1 percent higher, Charney estimates that up to 7,400 jobs could be lost in the private sector.

But if the state does not pass the sales tax and is forced to cut another $867.5 million in state spending, it will lose an additional $442.5 million in federal matching funds.

The loss of that money and the cuts to state government will result in the loss of 20,500 jobs, according to Charney’s model.

That’s a big difference from an earlier analysis of the impact of a sales-tax hike that was done by Beacon Hill at the behest of the Goldwater Institute, which projects a net loss of 9,155 jobs.

The UA study, which notes that it was unable to replicate the Beacon Hill numbers using accepted economic models, pokes a number of holes in the Goldwater study. You can find the details here, but we’ll point out one glaring oversight: The Goldwater study doesn’t take into account the loss of $442.5 million in federal matching funds if the sales-tax proposition fails at the ballot.

The bottom line: While the sales tax will drain dollars from private sector funding, “those dollars don’t disappear,” Charney notes in the report. “Government doesn’t bury (or burn or flush) the proceeds—it spends those dollars and thereby pumps money right back into the economy.”

We hear that Wade McLean, the former superintendent of the Marana School District, is considering a run for the Arizona House of Representatives in Legislative District 26, which stretches from the Catalina Foothills up through Oro Valley and into Saddlebrooke.

District 26 is one of Arizona’s few swing districts that’s gone bipartisan in recent years: Republican Vic Williams and Democrat Nancy Young Wright serve in the Arizona House of Representatives.

Wright is the only Democrat running in LD26 this year. Williams is also seeking reelection, with Republican Terri Proud, a young conservative mom, seeking the second seat for the GOP team.

McLean has good name ID in the district; they’ve even named a pool after him at Marana High. The debates promise to be fun if he gets into the race.

Our new District 30 state representative, Republican Ted Vogt, makes his first appearance on the Friday Roundtable alongside Democratic Rep. Phil Lopes, who is wrapping up his legislative career this year.

Vogt makes some interesting comments about the impact of budget and tax cuts. For example, he "takes issue" with the idea that the loss of more than $1.5 billion in state and federal funds will damage hospitals and other parts of the health-care industry in Arizona, despite the evidence—such as a report from ASU economists—to the contrary. If there are no negative consequences for reducing funding, then why do Republicans say they had to make tough choices?

Watch it after the jump.

While pushing his bill to keep incandescent light bulbs legal in Arizona, state Sen. Frank Antenori explains why the state has the right under the U.S. Constitution to build its own nuclear bomb.

SCR 1009, a bill that would ask voters to block public funds from being spent on political campaigns (and thus gut Clean Elections), is scheduled for a hearing today in today in the House Commerce Committee. Last week, it was held because it didn't have the votes to pass.

The Arizona Chamber of Commerce has put together the above ad hammering lawmakers who oppose the bill.

The House GOP tax-cut plan that overwhelmingly benefit the wealthiest Arizonans and corporations while increasing taxes on homeowners has hit a snag. Howie has the details here.

Senate President Bob Burns speaks a bit of common sense about the idea of the tax cuts:

Senate President Bob Burns, R-Peoria, said he can't support reducing state revenues as much as the original House bill would have when the state is still digging its way out of a multibillion-dollar hole.

"I think the priority we have to worry about is the deficit," he said. "If we do something that will increase the size of the deficit, that's wrong."

Failure to respond to the deficit would drive business away, even as the state tries to lure new firms with lower taxes.

"I don't know who comes here as a business if they look at our financial situation and see that we're X number of dollars in deficit and not closing that gap," he said.

Is Sine Die around the corner? The latest from Rep. Steve Farley:

Howdy, Friends O'Farley…

Could they really be that foolhardy?

I know that is a question that may have entered your mind from time to time regarding the Governor and Legislative majority. And recent history has seemed to suggest an affirmative answer more often than not.

But their latest idea, if they carry it out, could well destroy our healthcare system and economy along with it.

We hear that Governor Brewer is trying to arrange a Sine Die — the final end of regular session — as early as this week. This normally would not be a bad thing because it would have the effect of killing a whole lot of really bad bills.

But this year, it would also have the effect of shutting down any efforts to restore KidsCare health insurance for 38,000 kids. Which would in turn have the effect of turning down the $7 billion a year we get from the Federal Government to provide AHCCCS health care to people in poverty.

That money goes to doctors, hospitals, and many

Another depressing reality check for the state’s financial picture: We still have not hit bottom in our declining tax revenues.

The lagging sales tax is one big reason. Retail sales were down by at 5.8 percent compared to February 2009, which was relatively good compared to the contracting sales tax, which was nearly 40 percent off compared to this time last year, according to the latest report from the Joint Legislative Budget Committee.

The good news: The overall drop of 8 percent in sales-tax collections was the first time in 16 months that it had been less than double digits. The bad news: Collections were still more than $10 million off the most recent projections, which bodes poorly for this year’s ending balance.

Income tax collections were $22 million below the forecast, but on the bright