Maricopa County school district turns to prison labor to cut costs

Maricopa County school districts are relying on prison labor for cheap janitor and landscaping work, citing tight budgets and failed funding requests from voters. Gila Bend Unified School District will pay the following amounts to the inmates: lewis prison Buckeye will now pay 50 cents an hour for work on campus such as cleaning school […]

Daniel Sutter: Costs of regulation

The federal government issues thousands of pages of new regulations each year (over 90,000 pages of new regulations). Federal Register in 2023). Although the costs of regulation are largely hidden, they can be estimated. A recent study by the National Association of Manufacturers puts the total at $3.1 trillion annually, or more than 10% of […]

Why Arizona law allows secret funding of politicians’ legal costs

Arizona’s largest power utility, once a punching bag for Chris Mays when he was an electricity regulator, is set to help Mays defend a legal challenge to the November attorney general election. Company records show he paid $25,000. A donation from Pinnacle West Capital Corporation, the parent company of the Arizona Public Service Company, to […]