Risk is part of the game for any business launching a profit-seeking venture—and taxpayers should never be forced to subsidize any business, successful or not. That’s why the Goldwater Institute is suing Columbia, Mo., over its illegal deal to provide American Airlines with up to $750,000 in taxpayer money if its new route to North Carolina isn’t always profitable.
Goldwater filed the lawsuit in Boone County Circuit Court on Wednesday, more than a month after warning Columbia leaders that their deal guaranteeing American’s monthly revenues is unconstitutional. The Missouri Constitution’s Gift Clause expressly bans cities and other state subdivisions from lending their credit or granting public money “to or in aid of any corporation.” The city’s promise to pony up taxpayer money to back American’s new route to Charlotte, N.C., illegally shifts private business risk onto the public.
The public’s money should be spent on essential public services, not on padding a major airline’s bottom line. The Goldwater Institute will continue to back taxpayers when the government treats the public purse like a private piggy bank.
It seems like it happened overnight. Artificial intelligence (AI) is becoming a dominant part of our economy, and even our daily lives. With no sign of it slowing, is America prepared for the AI future?
A new Goldwater Institute report, Powering the AI Boom, answers that question. Authored by Domenico Ferraro, Ph.D., associate professor at Arizona State University, the report argues that the United States is capable of meeting this challenge, given a market-oriented policy framework.
The artificial intelligence boom may sound like a story about software, algorithms, and the cloud—something ethereal that we cannot touch. The reality is much more concrete. Behind it all are power plants, transmission lines, substations, cooling systems, and an enormous amount of electricity.
“The policy question is not whether to accommodate the AI boom,” Ferraro writes, “but how to get the next increment of power generation, transmission, and local grid capacity operational on a timeline consistent with demand growth and at a manageable cost.”
This is the latest in a series of Goldwater Institute reports on the Data Center Future.
Read more about the report here.
When Arizona voters head to the polls this November, they’ll have an unprecedented opportunity to back not one, but two Goldwater Institute constitutional amendments aimed at protecting education freedom in the state and defeating discriminatory “diversity, equity, and inclusion” (DEI) for good.
By approving Goldwater’s Military Family Protection Act, voters will ensure that Arizona military families will never have their Empowerment Scholarship Account (ESA) funds confiscated by a politically motivated effort to dismantle the state’s landmark school-choice program. Arizona’s military members put their lives on the line to protect this nation. Now it’s time to protect them from a teachers’ union ploy to smother Arizona’s landmark ESA program that allows parents to choose the education that works best for their kids.
Meanwhile, voters also have an opportunity this fall to support HCR2044 and enshrine the nation’s strongest protections against race-based discrimination and DEI into the state’s constitution. The measure will ensure that race-based discrimination is never allowed in Arizona, regardless of who’s in the White House or sitting on the Supreme Court.
The Goldwater Institute will always fight for education freedom and equality for all. By supporting the Military Family Protection Act and HCR2044, Arizona voters can take a stand for these critical principles.
Read more about the Military Family Protection Act here.
Read more about defeating DEI here.
As America celebrates the 250th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence, join the Goldwater Institute for a special webinar discussion on Timothy Sandefur’s new book Proclaiming Liberty, a powerful exploration of the ideas that gave birth to the American experiment in freedom.
On June 22, 2026, join Timothy Sandefur live at 11AM AZ / 2PM Eastern for a live webinar to discuss his new book and why our nation’s revolutionary ideas are still relevant today.
