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.
An important driver of job growth is investment. Without investment, new businesses may not flourish or even see the light of day. And venture capital investment in technology start-ups is one of the highest-profile sources of new business births.
Governor Jan Brewer may call a special legislative session to extend unemployment insurance (UI) payments from 79 to 99 weeks. Senate President Russell Pearce and others are concerned that extending the length of time the unemployed can receive government payments discourages their search for work. They have good reason to be concerned. A number of economic studies have estimated that the availability of extended unemployment benefits tends to postpone an active search for employment by the average worker.
It’s not every day that the New York Times makes a compelling case against government giveaways. But a recent page-one article underscored that the Solyndra scandal was only the tip of the solar-subsidy iceberg. Huge companies like Goldman Sachs, Morgan Stanley, General Electric, utilities including Exelon and NRG, and even Google are receiving government guarantees that ensure large profits with virtually no risk — except to the taxpayer.
State-by-state comparisons can be useful to determine how Arizona stacks up against our neighbors, including our relative business-friendliness. While we might not agree on the best way to entice companies to locate here, we can all agree that economic indicators and tax structures matter to investors, entrepreneurs and wealth creators.
Every year, people and their income move between states. They move for a number of reasons, but there’s ample evidence that cost of living and its relationship to tax burdens are a factor.
PHOENIX — Clint Bolick looks like any other high-powered lawyer, for the most part. But glance down at his index finger, which sports a scorpion tattoo, for first-hand evidence of his unconventional streak.
The latest target of the Arizona Board of Cosmetology is entrepreneur Lauren Boice and her business Angels on Earth Home Beauty. Though Lauren’s unique business is a blessing to her homebound clients, the Board has come to treat her like an outlaw.
With America’s unemployment rate at or above 9 percent for three years, prior to the rate being pushed down by people leaving the workforce, job creation is on everybody’s mind. Unfortunately, for many policymakers across the country the ideas to turn that rate around – tax breaks for big corporations or outright subsidies to biotechnology, solar power, or other high-tech industries – have been tried, with little to show for them.