Arizona Considers Raiding Office in Silicon Valley

AZ Gov. Janet Napolitano wants to open an office in Silicon Valley to help recruit high-tech businesses to the Valley of the Sun. Her 2005 budget proposal calls for $200,000 to fund a two-person office in the world's technology center to sell businesses on the idea of moving here.

But that's not the farthest Napolitano's administration would reach. She has also opened a Washington, D.C., office to lobby for more federal money and the preservation of the state's military bases. And she wants to counter some of the Grand Canyon marketing done by Las Vegas with $2.6 million more in tourism dollars to remind people that Arizona, not Nevada, is the Grand Canyon State.

Opening national and international offices is a good idea if: 1) there is a clear strategy to guide them; 2) you open the offices in the right places; and 3) you can afford to keep them open. Otherwise, don't do it. Many states have botched their out-of-state office plans by placing political hacks in the jobs and not making them performance-based.

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