MEDIA ADVISORY

Media Conference on Burdensome Barriers:
"How Excessive Regulations Impede Entrepreneurship in Arizona"

Date/Time: 8:30-10 a.m./Monday, December 8, 2003

Place:
Goldwater Institute
500 E. Coronado Rd. (one block north of McDowell, west of 7th Street)
Phoenix, AZ 85004

Participants
Tim Keller, staff attorney, Institute for Justice Arizona Chapter
Rev. Oscar Tillman, president, Maricopa County Chapter, National Association for the Advancement of Colored People
Michelle Bolton, Arizona state director, National Federation of Independent Business; and member, Governor’s Regulatory Review Council

Contact:
Tom Jenney, director of communications, Goldwater Institute, (602) 712-1257

Summary:
Arizona entrepreneurs are shackled by burdensome regulatory requirements. The large number of regulations creates barriers to market entry, increasing consumer costs and in some instances unconstitutionally barring direct market access to competitors. Arizona statutes restrict entry into occupations for persons wishing to serve consumers as cosmetologists, barbers, African hairbraiders, taxicab drivers and street vendors. In a new report from the Goldwater Institute authored by Institute for Justice staff attorney Tim Keller, Keller describes how entrepreneurs would rush to open new businesses if set free from burdensome and needless regulations. Among their ranks would be hundreds of low-income and minority entrepreneurs who would be taking the first step up the proverbial economic ladder.

The Institute for Justice is the nation’s leading legal advocacy group for economic liberty—the right to earn an honest living free from excessive government regulation. It has broken up government-protected cartels in various industries nationwide.

To register, e-mail rsvp@goldwaterinstitute.org or call (602) 712-1144 by Wednesday, December 3. Continental breakfast will be served. This event is free of charge.

Note
To arrange interviews on this subject, journalists may call John Kramer, the Institute for Justice’s vice president for communications, at (703) 682-9320.