More transparency needed at Arizona Commerce Authority
Additional recommendation from AFP-Arizona
Arizona Commerce Authority News Conference
May 17, 2012
“The Arizona chapter of Americans for Prosperity agrees with the findings and the transparency and accountability recommendations of the Arizona PIRG report released today, but we have one additional recommendation,” said AFP-Arizona director Tom Jenney.
“In addition to providing information in subsidy contracts about expected economic benefits — number of jobs created, number of employees trained, increased property tax revenue, etc — we believe that the Arizona Commerce Authority should also attempt to do an accounting of the opportunity costs involved.”
“If the Arizona Commerce Authority plans to spend $30 million on deal-closing opportunities, that is $30 million that came out of Arizona’s real economy. The Authority should have to explain why it thinks that the money would not be better spent by private investors and consumers. The ACA should explain why it believes that the $30 million should not be returned to taxpayers through broad-based tax relief to Arizona businesses and families. Put another way, the ACA should explain why it believes that it is a better investor of taxpayer money than actual private investors.”
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