The Republic | azcentral.com Mon Jan 13, 2014 10:08 PM

Gov. Jan Brewer delivered what may have been her final State of the State address Monday, sounding at times nostalgic as she cataloged accomplishments from her five years in office but also surprising the joint session of the Legislature with bold proposals and reminding them, in a brief aside, that she has yet to decide whether this term will be her last.

Brewer recalled how the state, under her watch, had weathered a historic recession, coming back from a $3billion deficit, passed business-friendly legislation to make the state more competitive and expanded health care for the poor.

But after spending the first half of her address on the past, the Republican governor pivoted toward present problems and her goals for Arizona’s future.

Brewer said her immediate focus is to transform the state’s troubled child-welfare system and ensure abused and neglected children are not ignored.

Before walking into the chambers of the House of Representatives, Brewer signed an executive order to “abolish (Child Protective Services) as we know it.” She then proposed in her address an overhaul of CPS, removing it from the Department of Economic Security and replacing it with a stand-alone Cabinet-level agency that reports directly to her.

The announcement, which surprised Republicans and Democrats alike, comes as state officials continue to sift through more than 6,500 reports of abused and neglected children that were not investigated by CPS staff.

Brewer will need the Legislature’s support to create a permanent stand-alone agency, but many lawmakers said they want more details before they support the plan.

Brewer’s prepared remarks, provided to the media before her speech, did not include the announcement.

As Brewer embarks on what is expected to be her final hurrah as the state’s 22nd governor, lawmakers and political observers said it was too early to tell how the child-welfare proposal could affect her legacy, which is dominated by her signature on immigration law Senate Bill 1070, her support of the temporary 1-cent-per-dollar sales tax and her Medicaid-expansion victory.

“If her solution ... works, I think that will be to her credit and she’ll be remembered for it,” said David Berman, a senior research fellow at Arizona State University’s Morrison Institute for Public Policy. “It will show her taking bold decisive action in a crisis situation, which is a sign of leadership.”

But, Berman added, “She, in a way, was responsible for the failure in the first place — it’s rectifying a mismanagement problem that’s been going on for quite some time.”

Brewer’s chief of staff, Scott Smith, said the agency needs a “comprehensive overhaul” and “a new vision.”

“We all know this is an incredibly heavy lift and not something that’s going to happen overnight,” Smith told The Arizona Republic.

During her 30-minute speech, Brewer also called on lawmakers to stabilize tuition for university students’ four-year terms, saying families “are flat-out tired of unpredictable tuition hikes.”

Brewer said she will ask the Arizona Board of Regents, which governs the three state universities, to develop a plan and adopt a policy that “guarantees stable” in-state tuition levels for the four years it typically takes to graduate.

The governor also asked the Republican-controlled Legislature to fund what she called “an ambitious and historic education proposal” that links school funding to strides in student performance. Her proposal, Student Success Funding, modifies a plan she introduced last year to limited success.

By 2018, she said, three out of five jobs in Arizona will require post-secondary training.

“Our students must be better prepared for the challenging and competitive world they will soon enter,” Brewer said. “That means we stop funding the status quo and instead reward innovation and measured outcomes and fund the results we want.”

Under such a plan, students would be assigned a dollar amount based on their performance and improvement on state achievement tests. The higher a student’s performance and the more growth a student shows, the more money a school district or charter would receive for that student. Rewards would be more heavily weighted toward underperforming students showing the greatest progress.

Underscoring the need to end human trafficking, Brewer called on lawmakers to strengthen laws to give prosecutors and law enforcement more tools, likening it to “modern-day slavery.” The governor said she will create a Human Trafficking Council to address the problem statewide. A policy paper says Brewer will launch a statewide public-awareness campaign “to create zero tolerance for this crime against humanity.”

“To all the victims of human trafficking out there: We have not forgotten you,” she said. “To the criminal traffickers, say: Your days are numbered.”

Brewer also proposed the elimination of a sales tax on manufacturers for power used to create products, saying the tax is a deterrent to new manufacturers.

She said state officials must address transportation, water and other infrastructure needs to remain competitive, create jobs and attract capital investment — hinting that she may later emphasize additional funding on those fronts. Brewer is expected to release her proposed budget on Friday.

In her address, the governor stressed the importance of the state’s military bases, saying they contribute more than $9billion a year to the state’s economy. She wants a plan to sustain the bases as the federal government contemplates base closures, and she called on lawmakers to renew legislative support for a fund to protect bases from encroaching private development.

House Speaker Andy Tobin said he was pleased with parts of Brewer’s speech, including her plans for CPS and an economic package.

“We were hoping for a little more on forestry, and fire issues,” he said.”

Brewer mentioned the 19 Granite Mountain Hotshots who died June30 in the Yarnell Hill Fire — pausing for a moment of silence — but offered no prescriptions to address wildfires or train firefighters.

The governor’s policy paper said her executive budget includes funding for “training and assistance to educate homeowners and communities about ‘Firewise’ techniques; training for local wildland firefighters; and removal of hazardous vegetation.”

Tobin, who is running for Congress in northern Arizona, said he also would have liked to hear more support for community colleges and rural communities. Despite Brewer’s touting Arizona’s economic comeback, “rural Arizona is still struggling,” he said.

After the governor’s speech, Democrats highlighted their priorities, some of which align with Brewer’s. They also questioned the governor’s rosy view of the state’s economic condition.

House Minority Leader Chad Campbell, D-Phoenix, said Brewer oversold the state’s economic position.

“I think there are some questions about the ‘great Arizona comeback,’” he said. “You look at our education system, you look at our state agencies, and I’m not convinced we’re in as solid a position as Governor Brewer suggests.”

For example, he said, K-12 performance lags many other states, the tax system is not competitive despite recent policy changes, and unemployment remains high.

It is widely anticipated this will be Brewer’s final legislative session, although she and one attorney maintain she may have a legitimate challenge to a provision in the state Constitution that limits governors to two terms. Brewer became governor after Gov. Janet Napolitano resigned. Brewer was elected to a full term in 2010.

She kept Monday’s crowd guessing about her intentions.

“Great men and great women have walked these chambers, and graced these grounds with their honorable public service,” said Brewer, who has been an elected official for three decades. “We should aspire here to rank among the best of those. For this state was built by others before us, and eventually will be left to others who will follow.

“It is ours to love only for a time,” she said. “May we love it wisely, and lead it well. Ten years from now — whether I run again or not — I will be working in my garden, and will look back with pride.”

Republic reporters Mary Jo Pitzl and Alia Beard Rau contributed to this article.