Business & Job Creation
Businesses need a friendly and fair business environment so they can compete, innovate, and create jobs. We’re keeping politicians from playing favorites by offering special deals and tax breaks to the favored few.
The Goldwater Institute filed suit on Wednesday challenging Phoenix's $97.4 million subsidy to CityNorth, a mixed-use development under construction in northeast Phoenix.
The lawsuit, filed in Maricopa County Superior Court, seeks an injunction against the subsidy and to restore the constitutional ban on subsidies.
The city of Surprise is facing criticism over a $240 million sales tax rebate it is giving Westcor to build a vast retail, office and residential project on farmland next to the planned Loop 303 freeway.
The incentive package is for the shopping mall developer's Prasada project. Prasada will include a regional mall, car dealerships, shopping centers, as many as 13,000 homes and other commercial space.
Arizona's bioscience sector has added jobs, drawn more federal research money and created companies, but the state still needs to attract more venture capital for the state to become a major player in the industry. That's the assessment of the status of Arizona's bioscience businesses after four years of a major public and private-sector effort to expand the industry in Arizona, according to Battelle, a Columbus, Ohio-based technology research organization, which wrote a 10-year plan for the state's bioscience industry.
Phoenix Congressman John Shadegg supports the Bush administration's move Wednesday to release oil supplies from federal strategic reserves in order to ease the strain of skyrocketing gasoline prices.
Gasoline and crude oil prices have soared above already-record levels this week due to Hurricane Katrina's massive hit on the Gulf Coast and its energy operations.
The New Orleans Gulf Coast area accounts for one-third of the domestic petroleum production and the storm has knocked refineries and drilling rigs out of commission.
Rosemary Lean wants to get ahead in life, to make a better future for herself and her children.
To reach her goal, the divorced mother of three works two jobs and is taking classes toward a degree from Pima Community College.
"I have a goal," says Lean, 42, dental program director for St. Elizabeth of Hungary Clinic and a part-time teacher at Pima. "I just don't have a life."
The face of diversity is changing as some businesses move beyond considering gender and race in their employment strategies.
A new study commissioned by the Phoenix-based Goldwater Institute think tank calls for the elimination of the federal unemployment tax on employers and opposes proposed increases to state unemployment insurance benefits.
The study, which will officially be published next month, was conducted by Oregon economist William Conerly.
Every month, the plain brown cardboard box arrives at my office, right on schedule. It is delivered not by a uniformed guy from UPS or FedEx but by a courier wearing ordinary clothing and driving an unmarked vehicle.
There is no return address on the box; nothing indicating what is inside. I wait until I get home to open it, not wanting my co-workers to know what I'm having delivered.
I'm not sure what I'm doing is legal or not, but it certainly seems shady. Regardless, I'm made to feel like a criminal - and that's exactly what the state of Arizona wants.
So called big box stores like Wal-Mart, Ikea and Costco have become the favorite whipping boys of some policymakers. The City of Phoenix is considering new zoning regulations that would make it tougher for these retailers to set-up shop.
If bureaucrats were the only people who suffered the effects of this commercial snobbery, such measures wouldn't matter much. Unfortunately, in this case, all consumers suffer.
Eeyore would feel right at home in Tucson. Arizona's second city has become a rather gloomy place.
Tucson policymakers fear Tucson lacks a "vibrant core" and will never attract creative class workers that supposedly drive economic growth. If only we were more like Austin, they opine.
According to the Tucson Citizen, the Texas capitol has "rhythm and synergy;" it has a cool music scene, a hip downtown. All true, but if the goal is economic growth and jobs, Tucson is doing more things right than Austin.