Goldwater Institute

Excess spending, not a revenue shortage, has created Arizona's mounting budget shortfall. During the 1990s, the legislature spent two of every three dollars in new revenue, and sent only one dollar in new revenue back to taxpayers. In fact, general fund spending doubled between 1990 and 2000.

In a special election set for May 20, 2003, Scottsdale voters will determine whether the city should create a publicly run, municipal fire department, or continue its contract with Rural/Metro Corporation, the private company that has provided Scottsdale's fire service since 1951.

The federal Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA), designed to prevent the neglect and segregation of special education students, has resulted in the neglect and segregation of even larger student populations of minorities nationwide, including Arizona. The culprit: Perverse financial incentives to classify children as "learning disabled" when in fact they are "learning deficient," meaning they require remedial reading instruction, not special education programs.

In the 1980's TV series, Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, galactic explorer Arthur Dent discovers that the ultimate answer to "life, the universe, and everything" is the number 42. While we can't claim to have solved the deep mysteries of the cosmos, we are confident that the 42 ideas presented here have the power to expand freedom and prosperity in our corner of the world. In this report, the staff and scholars of the Goldwater Institute offer dozens of specific ideas for the legislature to consider in crafting state policy this year, and beyond.

Arizona's smokers have discovered that there's more than one way to be Proposition'd. First, it was Proposition 200, which banned smoking in Tempe's "public places." That's public, as in private restaurants, bars, billiard halls, and bowling alleys. Now it's Proposition 303, a proposal to increase Arizona's cigarette tax from 58 cents per pack to $1.18--the nation's fifth highest rate. The war against tobacco has reached fever pitch. Politicians and misguided voters disdain property rights, ignore contrary scientific evidence on secondhand smoke, reduce smokers to second-class citizenship, and pave the path for more intrusive government worming its way into every phase and facet of our daily lives.