Government Red Tape
Whether it’s layers of licensing requirements or endless red tape, government rules and regulations can stifle business. Learn how we can free up entrepreneurs.
This year a ballot initiative is moving to establish a minimum wage in Arizona. The wage would initially be $5.95 an hour and would rise to $6.75 an hour in 2008.
Arizona currently has no state-required minimum wage, but employers are required to comply with the federal minimum wage of $5.15.
It's a safe assumption that most Americans want to reduce poverty and give all workers a chance at the American dream. But a higher minimum wage tends to put the lesser skilled among us out of work.
In 1965, the University of Florida football team faced a potentially devastating enemy-dehydration. University doctors set out to make a drink that would keep the team hydrated and winning. The product they made is now known the world over as Gatorade. Not only did Gatorade energize dehydrated football players, but once licensed to a soft drink company, it reaped handsome profits for the University of Florida and sparked an ongoing race for universities to discover more profitable products.
Seventy years after the end of Prohibition, it is illegal for Arizona consumers to purchase wine directly from out-of-state wineries.
Arizona is one of two dozen states that prohibit the direct shipment of out-of-state wines to in-state consumers. Although the number of nationwide wineries and available wines has increased by over 500 percent over the past 30 years, wholesalers continue to dictate the availability of out-of-state wines to Arizona consumers.
There seems to be plenty of finger-pointing going on, but ultimately, little is being said about the actual reason for the current gas shortage in Phoenix. Everyone seems to be aware that a pipeline broke and we have to wait for federal approval before gas can begin flowing. But, isn't anyone wondering why this problem is confined to the Phoenix metropolitan area?
In the Robert Bolt play, A Man for All Seasons, St. Thomas More is chided for allowing an unsavory character to go unpunished because there is no law against the act in question. In response, More declares that he would give the devil the benefit of law, for his own safety's sake.
Executive Summary
Introduction
There are two strategies public agencies may use to ensure private contractors perform as desired. The first is to focus on inputs and include in the contract specifications how a job is to be performed and with what inputs. The second strategy is to focus on outcomes. Performance-based contracting is a contracting system that concentrates on intended results and incorporates incentives for the contractor to achieve them.
Executive Summary
In February, Congress overwhelmingly passed and President Clinton quickly signed into law the Telecommunications Act of 1996 (called TA96 in this report). The Act amends the Communications Act of 1934. Under the philosophy of the 1934 Act, telecommunications was considered a "natural monopoly" that needed to be regulated. The 1934 Act created the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) to do the regulating at the federal level, leaving state regulation to State regulatory commissions.
Phoenix--Tom Preston has owned and operated Virtual Reality, a tattoo studio in Mesa, for 14 years, with no consumer complaints or legal infractions. But when he and his wife, Elizabeth, sought to open a new studio in a vacant storefront in a strip mall on Scottsdale Road in Tempe, the City Council gave him a resounding no.
PHOENIX - The Goldwater Institute today filed an amicus brief in Granholm v. Heald, now before the U.S. Supreme Court, arguing that wine distribution laws in states such as Arizona and Michigan violate the Commerce Clause of the U.S. Constitution.