Goldwater Institute

An easy way to make it into the papers in Arizona is to come up with a list ranking the state's standing in various indicators of well-being. Kids Count, the Children's Rights Council, the Corporation for Enterprise Development, all make news telling Arizonans how bad off they are compared with other states.

Those who believe that the government can only provide inferior services should take a look at the National Park Service's line of premier outhouses: $420,000 for one disguised as a corn-crib, $330,000 for one with limestone capstones for its porch railing and a slate roof, and a whopping $1 million for a four-holer with state-of-the-art, solar powered composting units and a backup propane generator.

Steve McQueen, the actor, once said that he would rather wake up in the middle of nowhere than in any city on earth. This is a typically American attitude toward cities. This distaste of the city environment, the cramped spaces, the crowds, the pollution and the noise goes all the way back to Thomas Jefferson who dreamt of a nation founded on yeomen farmers. Although there aren't many farmers today, the dream lives on in many families who wish to live in their own, single, detached home.

Over the past twenty years, governments all over the world have transferred the responsibility for providing services out of their hands and into the private sector. One of the pioneers in this movement has been the city of Phoenix, Arizona. However, instead of dismantling the public agency providing the service and hiring a private contractor, the city allows the public agency to bid for the contract as well. Phoenix estimates the competitive process has saved it over $30 million since 1979.

At the end of 1996, the Arizona Corporation Commission passed a rule that phases in deregulation in the electricity industry over the next five years.