Arizona is a Red State with the usual combination of low taxes, low wages and a high poverty rate.
Tucson among nation’s poorest regions
Metro area ranked sixth in number of people below poverty level
Posted Sep 24, 2012, 6:09 pm
Khara Persad Cronkite News Service
WASHINGTON – Tucson was the sixth-poorest of the nation’s large metropolitan areas in 2011, with a poverty rate of 20.4 percent, according to new data from the Census Bureau.
That rate, which was well above the national poverty rate of 15.9 percent last year, was attributed to the region’s high unemployment, slow economic growth, low education levels and low-paying jobs.
“Obviously it is a statistic we’re not happy about,” said Mike Varney, president and CEO of the Tucson Metro Chamber. Varney said low-income jobs are also a problem for the region.
“We have a service-driven, tourist industry where there is an over-abundance of lower paying jobs,” he said.
The sixth-place ranking was among just over 100 metropolitan areas with populations over 500,000.
UPDATE: Here's a screenshot from
the report:
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