From the article:
Ms. Neff acknowledged, however, that the university has yet to raise all the funds required for the event, which is scheduled to take place at an auditorium on the school's Tempe campus, just east of Phoenix.The Arizona constitution prohibits using taxpayer funds for private gain, a provision that I suspect is more often than not ignored, (e.g., football/baseball stadia for the Cardinals and Diamondbacks), but which is nonetheless the law.
Probably written in the days before the New Deal when people were worried about socialism, don't you think?
These days, you'd have a tough time passing such a constitutional constraint on government.
I approve of that clause in the Arizona constitution.
Otherwise, though, I am more confused than I was before concerning exactly who is responsible for the debates.