Facts don’t add up in study of government worker pay
A few months ago, the city of Phoenix rolled out a $450,000 taxpayer-funded report showing that local governmental workers were paid 6 percent more in aggregate wages and benefits than private sector workers on average.
50th Arizona Legislature earns ‘most pro-small business’ tag
Arizona’s 2012 legislative session picked up where the 2011 session left off — aspiring to be the most pro-small business Legislature in Arizona’s history.
2012 session one of the most successful in years
It is often said that nothing — or at least nothing good — gets done in an election year. You can’t say that about the Arizona state Capitol in 2012.
Unfortunately, lost opportunities defined centennial Legislature
Two words come to mind when I think of the centennial legislative session: lost opportunity. The lack of true leadership demonstrated by the Arizona Legislature under a Republican supermajority and a Republican governor will hurt Arizona for years.
Richard Carmona: Birther stunts symptom of larger problem
A frightening symptom is caused by a major systematic problem – that’s true in medicine, and it’s true in politics.
Trans-Pacific trade agreement must protect U.S. intellectual property
As an Arizonan, when you hear about trade agreements, you might not automatically think about jobs in the great Copper State. However, as the most populous landlocked state in the U.S., we should. Trade is a huge driver of our economy, not only as a nation, but also of our state economies.
Legislature passes job-creating reforms in taxes, regulations, civil justice and education
The two years of the 50th Arizona Legislature will go down in the history books as the years when the Legislature hit reboot on the Arizona economy and turned what was a basket case into a best case.
Time to give our first freedom as much respect as the second
A handful of elected officials in the Arizona Legislature have repeatedly tried to intimidate and silence Goldwater Institute analysts out of giving testimony in support of or in opposition to legislation this year. In one case, an elected official forced a Goldwater Institute attorney, who asked to speak on behalf of the Institute, to refrain from speaking because she was not a registered lobbyis[...]
Governor, Legislature score big wins for business 2nd year in a row
If Yogi Berra were a political analyst, he might describe the May 3 passage of HB2815 as the second consecutive year that the Legislature passed a once-in-a-generation competitiveness package.
Republicans’ ‘bait-and-switch’ budget lacks vision
Arizona Legislative Republicans did the state a disservice by pushing through a bait-and-switch budget that lacks vision, leaves kids of working families without health care coverage and fails to create jobs.
Democrats choose partisan zeal over participating in the great Arizona recovery
Republicans passed a budget this week and, as usual, we did so without the help of Democrats. Despite the fact that we made no cuts in essential services while providing $150 million for statewide K-12 education funding, $21 million for universities and $100 million for health & welfare programs, there never seems to be enough spending to satisfy all their demands.
Federal government attempting to halt development in Cochise County
Nearly two decades of simmering conflict over water resources in Cochise County reached an explosive climax recently when bureaucrats with the federal Bureau of Land Management (BLM) issued an unprecedented and stunning ultimatum to the state of Arizona: Stop development near the San Pedro Riparian National Conservation Area (SPRNCA).