Goldwater Institute involved in destruction of mineral museum

The March 1, 20014 post explored the possibility of the whole centennial museum fiasco being the result of a nefarious AHS plan to restore and preserve their big taproot into taxpayers pocketbooks.  The circumstantial evidence reviewed in that post appeared to suggest that is what happened.

However, a Jan 10, 2009 post on the Arizona Geologist’s blog suggests that the Legislature initiated the disaster by following a recommendation provided by the Goldwater Institute. The institute recommended eliminating the Arizona Department of Mines and Mineral Resources and transferring  management responsibility of the mineral museum to the AHS to save a half million dollars a year.

The demise of the mineral museum is apparently the eventual result of unintended consequences.  The Goldwater Institute apparently recognized the value of the mineral museum, but did not recognize the inability of the AHS to either produce or manage a top rated Arizona museum.

Exactly how the idea of transferring the existing mineral museum to the AHS morphed into the centennial museum fantasy is still unknown. However, even if the AHS did not initiate a grab for the mineral museum, it still bears the responsibility for its destruction.  As summarized in the June 4, 2014 post and explained in detail in prior posts, the AHS eliminated the mineral museum in defiance of Arizona statutes.

Neither the Legislature nor the Goldwater Institute intended to eliminate the mineral museum. Quite to the contrary, the Legislature specifically instructed the AHS to preserve it

Now, as reported in the April 6, 2014 post, the AHS is continuing to defy the legislature by attempting to convert the empty building into and “event center” and preclude and possibility of restoring the mineral museum and its K-12 earth science education programs.

Reference:

Proposal calls for eliminating ADMMR, cutting mine inspector budget.

Arizonageology.blogspot,com

January 10, 2009

http://arizonageology.blogspot.com/2009/01/proposal-calls-for-eliminating-admmr.html