Tax phobia taken to extremes in Arizona:
Call it a sign of desperate times: Legislators are considering selling the House and Senate buildings where they've conducted state business for more than 50 years.
Dozens of other state properties also may be sold as the state government faces its worst financial crisis in a generation, if not ever. The plan isn't to liquidate state assets, though.
Instead, officials hope to sell the properties and then lease them back over several years before assuming ownership again. The complex financial transaction would allow government services to continue without interruption while giving the state a fast infusion of as much as $735 million, according to Capitol projections.
For a nation that prides itself as being the cradle of the philosophy of pragmatism, we sure do twist ourselves into impractical pretzels in order to avoid paying one more cent for the public--and shared, common--good.
You'd think the old maxim, "You get what you pay for," would penetrate eventually.