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Goldwater Institute representatives are scheduled to meet with Glendale city leaders today at 3 p.m. to hear arguments on why they shouldn’t sue the city over a planned $100 million subsidy for the Phoenix Coyotes hockey team.
The right-leaning institute says it will release partial transcripts of the closed meeting, according to a news report from ABC-15 (KNXV-TV).
The city wants to raise $116 million in bonds, then give $100 million of that to a Chicago businessman who wants to buy the bankrupt Coyotes. If the deal goes through, it would prevent the team from leaving Glendale and moving to Canada.
The quasi-libertarian Goldwater Institute, however, says the deal violates a state law that bans Arizona from giving gifts.
Even the possibility of a lawsuit could spoil the deal, a Glendale spokeswoman told Channel 15.
We wonder what the city could possibly offer to the Goldwater folks that would make them change their minds. A bribe? Probably nothing overt, anyway. But without leverage, the city is stuck arguing the hoped-for, future economic benefit — an idea the institute already has rejected as wishful thinking.
The Coyotes lost against the Detroit Red Wings last night 6-3, sweeping them out of the playoffs. As the New York Times says today, the team is now skating into uncertainty.
