Stories by Goldwater Institute
FIXING FEDERAL DEBT IS UP TO THE STATES
Compact for America is exactly what Founders intended to check Washington
Most Americans don’t relish the thought of our children and grandchildren paying down the out-of-control federal debt over the next several decades. But with a national debt level now approaching $17 trillion, Americans must face up to the fact that Washington won’t fix itself: The best hope for fixing the spiraling federal bill is using the constitutional powers of the states.
BOARD OF COSMETOLOGY WILL CEASE REGULATING SMALL BUSINESSWOMAN
Settlement agreement ends sixteen-month battle fighting government red tape
In what is a major victory for individuals’ right to earn a living, the Arizona Board of Cosmetology has agreed to cease its attempts to needlessly regulate Lauren Boice, a small businesswoman who connects terminally ill patients with beauty service-providers. The Board also has agreed never to regulate businesses like Boice’s in the future.
RULING HALTS TAXPAYER-FUNDED UNION ACTIVISM
Goldwater Institute Lawsuit Puts Police Back on Patrol, Not at Union Desk.
PHOENIX, AZ –A widespread practice taking police officers off the street and sending them to the union desk on the taxpayer dime has been halted, thanks to a Goldwater Institute lawsuit challenging the practice as unconstitutional.
Maricopa County Superior Court Judge Katherine Cooper granted an injunction Tuesday against the practice of “release time” in a Phoenix labor contract with the local police union, the Phoenix Law Enforcement …
Unlikely alliance between organizations highlights case’s importance to fundamental freedoms
The American Civil Liberties Union has filed a friend-of-the-court brief supporting the Goldwater Institute’s appeal in Korwin v. Cotton, a free-speech challenge to Phoenix’s transit advertising standards that were applied to remove 50 “Guns Save Live” advertisements from the city’s bus shelter.
“This case has profound implications beyond whether Appellants can post their proposed advertisement on City of Phoenix bus shelters,” the ACLU’s brief argues. “It involves the scope of the Arizona Constitution’s grant to …
Better government practices will protect programs and services during next recession
If you lost your job today, would you go on a spending spree like there was no tomorrow? Of course you wouldn’t. Yet that’s exactly what state policymakers chose to do with state coffers when the recession hit and they failed to face up to the economic downturn, continuing to accept sunny revenue forecasts that never came to be.
In a policy report released Wednesday, Goldwater Institute economist …
Revolutionary School Choice Program Allows Families to Choose School Experience Best for Child
Arizona families looking for better education options have three weeks left to apply for an empowerment scholarship account, a revolutionary school choice program that gives parents the ability to choose the best education option for their child.
Empowerment scholarship accounts are private bank accounts that parents use for education expenses. The State of Arizona deposits a portion of a child’s share of education funding into the account and …
As Arizona debates the merits of a proposed plan to expand Medicaid, we should consider whether it’s even legal. As currently written, the plan is unconstitutional. That’s because it gives sweeping power to the Director of AHCCCS (Arizona’s Medicaid program) to make law, a job the state’s constitution says must be left to the legislature.
To pay Arizona’s share of the massive Medicaid expansion, the state will charge a “provider tax” to hospitals. But according to the draft language, legislators must …
Similar Violations Occur in University Systems Throughout the Country
PHOENIX – The Goldwater Institute is representing five public university students whose First Amendment rights were violated when the Arizona Students Association used mandatory tuition surcharges to support a 2012 ballot initiative that the students opposed.
The Arizona Board of Regents, which oversees the three public universities in the state, voted last month to end a policy that diverted mandatory tuition surcharges to the Students Association, a private group …
From tax-credits to fund tuition scholarships to charter schools to the revolutionary education savings account program, Arizona is the national leader in school choice; the state has a broader range of school options than anywhere else in the country.
Unfortunately, many families simply don’t know how to take advantage of these opportunities. 87,000 Arizona children, or almost ten percent, are languishing in failing schools. It is clear that more needs to be done to increase the involvement …
On the heels of Michigan legislators passing right-to-work reforms last month, lawmakers in Arizona will go several steps further this week to curb the abuses of Big Labor.
On Tuesday, members of the Arizona State House of Representatives will consider two measures drafted by the Goldwater Institute to restore the balance of power between government and public-sector unions.
The first measure would require that all collective bargaining negotiations occur in public.
Secret negotiations over employment contracts between union representatives and government officials are …
