Free-Styling - Slower revenue growth means it's time to get creative
By Goldwater Institute: Noah Clarke (01/09/07)
Policymakers have spent as if they had a limitless checking account in recent years. But state revenue is now set to slow.
Representative Phil Lopes, for one, knows the state’s all-you-can-spend smorgasbord can’t last forever, admitting to the Arizona Republic, “We’re all limited by the revenue.” Slower revenue growth is an opportunity to choose creative solutions to the state’s challenges, solutions that don’t add to the taxpayers’ burden.
For example, Arizona can add highway capacity and ease traffic problems without any new spending. In Texas, for instance, developer Cintra-Zachry is investing $1.3 billion to complete the “Trans-Texas Corridor.” In return, it will receive a 50-year contract to collect tolls. The highway will still be state-owned, but the company is responsible for financing, design, construction, operation and maintenance. Once it’s finished, only those using the road will have to pay for it.
In 2007, less truly could be more if lawmakers harness the creative power of the free market.
Noah Clarke is an economist with the Goldwater Institute Center for Economic Prosperity.
http://www.goldwaterinstitute.org/aboutus/ArticleView.aspx?id=1333
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