State auditors also said the AZ Commerce Authority is failing to ensure companies receiving incentives are creating new jobs and investments
JEROD MACDONALD-EVOY
Arizona Mirror
State auditors say the Arizona Commerce Authority spent $2.4 million on travel, luxury hotel rooms, alcohol and tickets to events — including Super Bowl LVII and the Waste Management Phoenix Open — in an effort to woo CEOs to relocate or expand their companies to Arizona.
And that may violate a constitutional provision barring Arizona governments from giving gifts to businesses, auditors said. They’ve asked Attorney General Kris Mayes to weigh in on whether the spending is legal.
The auditors also noted that the ACA is giving incentives to businesses without verifying if those companies follow through on promised job creation and investments.
The ACA deems the spending on the private “CEO Forums” as “central” to its purpose, which is to help attract and retain businesses in the state and also dispenses a number of grants and incentives.
State auditors looked at the ACA’s spending as part of a regular evaluation known as a “sunset audit,” during which legislators decide whether an agency should be reauthorized for up to 10 years. As part of the audit, they looked at five CEO Forums between 2018 and 2023.
The ACA spent more than $2.4 million hosting the events, which the ACA characterized as “marketing campaigns.”
Nearly all of that money was spent for the event in February 2023, when the CEO Forum included tickets to the Super Bowl and the Waste Management Phoenix Open: Roughly $2.1 million was spent to convince 67 CEOs to bring their companies to Arizona.
As of June 2023, the ACA reported that 23 of the 118 companies whose executives and their spouses were invited to attend any of the events since 2018 have proposed potential nonbinding investments or job commitments to the state.
The CEOs who attend the junkets have virtually every expense covered. The ACA pays for their hotel rooms, transportation, suites at sporting events, food, alcohol and conference rooms. The state even pays for gifts, such as hats, sunglasses and bottles of wine, according to the audit.
