Many economists are convinced the United States is already in recession, typically marked by two consecutive quarters of economic contraction, combined with a sharp rise in unemployment.

The U.S. mortgage mess has inflicted "extensive damage" on markets and institutions everywhere. The global expansion is losing momentum in the face of what has become the largest financial crisis in the United States since the Great Depression.

Things could easily take a turn for the worse and the global credit crisis is far from over.

What we are now confronting is a marked slowdown in global economic growth, emanating primarily from the sharp correction under way in the U.S. housing market and associated tightening in credit conditions linked to the collapse of the U.S. subprime mortgage market.

Inflation has also been a source of concern. The price index for personal consumption expenditures rose 3.4 per cent over the 12 months ending in February, up from 2.3 per cent over the preceding 12-month period. To a large extent, this pickup in inflation has been the result of sharp increases in the prices of crude oil, agricultural products and other globally traded commodities.

In light of the dire situation around the world and specifically, the United States which is having a severe adverse impact on Arizona, the Arizona legislature should make every effort to continue Arizona programs by taking severe steps to eliminate program duplication in this austere period of recession.

Arizona has been facing a deficit in five of the past eight budgets and this year and next, Arizona is dealing with a deficit abyss of $3 billion.

In bad times, tough decisions have to be made.

The first priority for Arizona is to protect and serve Arizona citizens. This first priority is law enforcement.

It is Arizona Revised Statues that mandates sub-divisions of the state and specifically, Arizona law dictates jurisdiction at the county level.

Law enforcement for counties, cities and towns is one of the biggest costs in local governments.

One area of duplication is having two police agencies responsible for the same jurisdiction.

Presently, county sheriff operations are authorized to serve and protect throughout each county, yet, each county also has city and town law enforcement entities authorized to serve and protect the same area.

In essence, the county sheriff has jurisdiction for the very same jurisdiction a city has. They both patrol and protect the very same neighborhood.

These overlapping responsibilities having multiple police agencies responsible for the same area is redundant, a waste of resources, a duplication of administrative and overhead costs and results in uncoordinated responses to serve and protect in essence the same neighborhood.

It is bad management and demonstrates a severe disrespect for taxpayers forced to pay twice for police services.

These multiple law enforcement agencies divert scarce resources away from vital law enforcement duties that fall within the sheriff's core duties. Considerable savings could be achieved if city and town agencies were the only law enforcement agency with each city or town jurisdiction leaving the balance of each county to the responsibility of the county sheriff.

The sheriff in each county is unique in each county with its jail operations and these should all continue within the sheriff's office core duties of serving un-served warrants, including those for violent offenders (dozens of criminal defendants have missed court appearances because deputies in charge of moving inmates were told to skip shifts due to excessive overtime).

Scarce funds used by the sheriff to arrest in Phoenix should be directed to maintaining three regional booking facilities in Surprise, Avondale, and Mesa. Closure of these facilities because of diverting scarce funds to making arrests in Phoenix, forces police officers in all 26 Maricopa city and town jurisdictions to book criminal suspects at the Fourth Avenue jail in downtown Phoenix. The greatly increased transportation time removes officers from the streets and induces them to simply cite and release criminals.

To avoid competing law enforcement and duplication of resources resulting in taxpayer savings, the Arizona Legislature should change the jurisdiction of each county sheriff.

The law in Arizona presently states: Arizona Revised Statutes Title 11, Counties, Chapter 3, Article 2, Sheriff, 11-441, Powers and duties, A. The sheriff shall: 1. Preserve the peace.

The law in Arizona should be changed to read: Powers and duties, A. The sheriff in balance of county where towns and cities police departments do not exist shall: 1. Preserve the peace.

These few words would save Arizona in excess of million dollars annually and in addition, would greatly enhance the sheriff's core duties of jail operations and un-served warrants.