Goldwater Institute

“What does it take to discipline a government worker?," asked Mark Flatten, an investigative journalist for the Goldwater Institute. He reported and wrote the influential piece. "What we found is there is a litany of rules, regulations, statutes, in some cases union contracts that make it very difficult, very time consuming, very expensive,” Flatten said in an Arizona Week interview.

Wyatt Earp might be long gone, but there is another showdown underway in Tombstone, Ariz. — this time between the town and the federal government.

One of the four measures would ban collective bargaining between governments and government workers.

Following up on a Goldwater Institute investigative report that uncovered how Phoenix and countless other cities spend millions of dollars on pay and benefits for city workers to do work for their unions, the Institute is challenging the union’s contract in court. It’s a case that could impact the 25 other states with similar state-constitution gift clauses. In other news, Goldwater is again challenging Arizona’s taxpayer funded campaign finance law, less than six months after the “matching funds” provision was struck down in the U.S. Supreme Court. This time, the Institute is demanding an end to the use of taxpayer money for illegal self-promotion. State officials have spent millions of taxpayer dollars on self-promotional ads ahead of a November referendum that could end public funding for political campaigns. Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker keynoted the 2011 Goldwater Dinner, at which he said, “Frugality in government brings freedom and prosperity for our people.”

Glendale, Ariz., is selling about $136 million in debt in the municipal-bond market this week, just days after Moody's Investors Service cut its bond rating because of the desert city's obligations to cover losses on a National Hockey League franchise.