Free Republic

The Empire Strikes Back With Massive Attorneys’ Fee Request in CityNorth Case Clint Bolick, Goldwater Institute, April 24, 2008 While the Goldwater Institute’s legal challenge to the CityNorth subsidy moves to the Court of Appeals, one issue remains before the trial court that upheld the subsidy. Not content merely to demand $97.4 million of taxpayer money, the developers now are seeking hundreds of thousands more for their attorneys’ fees—from the Goldwater Institute. The City is, too. Rather than using the same huge in-house legal department that negotiated the deal, the City hired a high-priced private firm to defend it. The...

Sophistry from the Superior Court : Ruling on CityNorth amends the state Constitution Without A Vote by the People Robert Robb, Goldwater Institute Daily Email, April 08, 2008 The Superior Court decision upholding the massive subsidy Phoenix gave CityNorth is an exercise in legal sophistry. Judge Robert Miles held that there were considerable public benefits from the building of the shopping center, and so there wasn't a violation of the state Constitution's gift clause. There is not, however, a public purpose or benefits exception to the gift clause ban. It states that no Arizona government "shall ever give or loan...

Problematic Parking: Phoenix proposes to pay dearly for an unlikely “public good” Patrick Gibbons, Goldwater Institute, March 04, 2008 Arizona’s constitution prohibits corporate subsidies by outlawing “any donation or grant, by subsidy or otherwise, to any individual, association or corporation.” Despite this, last year the City of Phoenix awarded a $97.4 million “incentive” to Klutznick Company, the developers of the CityNorth mall in north Phoenix. To stay within the bounds of the constitution and past Arizona Supreme Court decisions, the City has to prove it is buying a public good at an equal market value to the monetary incentive. In...

The City of Phoenix's $97.4 million subsidy to a developer to build the lavish CityNorth Project-we've dubbed it the Taj Mah-Mall-was based on the developer's estimate that it would need more than $100 million to break even on the deal. This is called a "feasibility gap"-but the credibility gap is even wider. The city's own independent consultant estimated the feasibility gap at only $25 million. The bottom line is much worse. Two experts hired by the Goldwater Institute in our constitutional challenge to the CityNorth subsidy have demonstrated that the developer will reap a huge profit even without the subsidy,...