04/03/2008
Maricopa County Superior Court Judge Robert Miles ruled this week that the $97.4 million taxpayer subsidy for the upscale CityNorth shopping mall in Phoenix is constitutional.
The Goldwater Institute's Scharf-Norton Center for Constitutional Litigation filed the case, Turken v. Gordon, on behalf of six Phoenix-based small business owners, arguing that the tax-rebate contract the city signed violates three provisions of the Arizona Constitution: the gift clause; the equal privileges and immunities clause; and the special laws clause. Three of the six plaintiffs are NFIB/Arizona members. NFIB's Small Business Legal Center filed an amicus brief this past winter in support of the small business owners.
An appeal will be filed shortly.
