City & Local Reform
There are almost 90,000 local governments in America, with an average of one new local government born every day. Many are unaccountable to taxpayers and special interest-driven, and the Goldwater Institute’s “New Charter for American Cities” gives citizens the tools they need to fight City Hall and hold their local governments accountable.
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Money for Nothing: Phoenix taxpayers foot the bill for union work
Posted on September 21, 2011 | Type: Investigative Report | Author: Mark FlattenPhoenix taxpayers spend millions of dollars to pay full salary and benefits for city employees to work exclusively for labor unions, a Goldwater Institute investigation found.
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A Pattern of Lawlessness in Quartzsite
Posted on July 20, 2011 | Type: VideoGoldwater Institute attorney Christina Kohn appeared on the Fox Business Network's Freedom Watch to discuss the chaos in Quartzsite, Ariz., where the town council has shut the mayor out of power and put the chief of police in charge.
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Phoenix's bid rules for contracts called ripe for abuse
Posted on July 06, 2011 | Type: In the News | Author: Emily GersemaPhoenix has no uniform set of procedures and policies for outside contracting and the guidelines it has relied on have been kept from both public view and City Council oversight, a situation that critics say could lead to unfairly awarded contracts and the waste of taxpayer dollars.
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Empty promises for government employees
Posted on April 27, 2011 | Type: Blog | Author: Byron SchlomachA recent Arizona Republic series revealed how some government employees are abusing Arizona’s pension systems by artificially boosting their salaries to collect a bigger pension, or by “double-dipping” – working while collecting retirement. That has strained Arizona’s pension funds. Unfortunately, even eliminating these abuses would still leave Arizona’s pension systems deeply in the red by more than $50 billion.
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Governor can help Arizona cities deliver fiscal responsibility
Posted on April 21, 2011 | Type: Blog | Author: Nick DraniasArizona stands poised to take the lead in restoring fiscal responsibility to local government. With near-unanimous support from Republicans in the state Senate, both houses of the Legislature passed Senate Bill 1322 to furnish all large scale city services, other than police and fire protection, through open and competitive bidding. Based on similar “managed competition” approaches adopted by cities throughout the country, this crucial reform promises to save taxpayers hundreds of millions of dollars.
