by admin | Mar 30, 2023 | Misc, News and Updates
We’re just over two years into President Biden’s presidency, and it appears the push for the Green New Deal is in full swing. They’re coming for your money. They’re coming for your cars. And now, yes, they are indeed coming for your gas stoves.
Of course, these Green New Deal activists don’t want you to know that. That’s why the mere mention of a potential gas stove ban draws eye-rolling responses from the left—like this piece from The New York Times that wants to assure you that the Biden administration is not planning a ban on gas stoves. Or the White House putting out a statement that the president does not support such a ban.
But it’s all lies.
Under the guise of public health and safety concerns, the Department of Energy issued a new rule in January that could ban up to 96% of existing gas stoves. This would affect nearly 35% of homes in the U.S., or more than 40 million Americans, who use gas stoves. But it’s all about your safety, right? So, shouldn’t we bow down and thank our government for protecting us from this significant danger? Well, if they truly cared about your safety, they would actually take a closer look at electric stoves. After all, the National Fire Protection Association recently found that households using electric stoves have a greater risk of cooking fires than those using gas stoves. And despite the fact that 60 percent of homes use electric stoves, 80 percent of stoves involved in cooking fires were powered by electricity.
But you won’t hear about that from the left because it’s not about safety at all. It’s about control. That’s why it’s essential for Republicans in the Arizona legislature to take action to protect the people of our state from this Green New Deal agenda. And earlier this week, they took an important first step.
Representative Steve Montenegro, who serves as the chairman for the Arizona House Health and Human Services Committee, introduced a strike everything amendment to SB1278 to prohibit cities and counties in our state from banning the gas stove along with other appliances. The amended bill was approved by the committee on a party line vote, but it was the testimony of one lobbyist that was particularly interesting.
While expressing opposition to the proposed amendment, Marshall Pimentel from the Arizona League of Cities and Towns admitted that some cities in Arizona are actively looking to ban gas appliances right now. Could one of them be yours? After all, they already have a good example to follow from our neighbors to the west. Just like Arizona may look to mimic San Diego’s vehicle mileage tax, some of our cities and towns may now be trying to follow California’s plan to ban all natural gas appliances by 2035.
But this trend needs to be stopped. The government should not be using health and safety concerns as a smokescreen for implementing Green New Deal mandates. And no city, town, or state should ever tell an American citizen how they’re allowed to cook food for their families.
Help Protect Freedom in Arizona by Joining Our Grassroots Network
Arizona needs to have a unified voice promoting economic freedom and prosperity, and the Free Enterprise Club is committed to making that happen. But we can’t do it alone. We need YOU!
Join our FREE Grassroots Action List to stay up to date on the latest battles against big government and how YOU can help influence crucial bills at the Arizona State Legislature.
by admin | Mar 24, 2023 | Misc, News and Updates
In the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020, multiple government officials seized the opportunity to grab more power. Perhaps chief among them were the Tucson city council and Mayor Regina Romero, who exploited the moment by declaring a “climate emergency.” Now, the city of Tucson has finalized its plan to solve this “climate emergency”—to the tune of an estimated $326 million. But it’s not just the cost that should concern you.
Tucson’s Climate Action Plan, titled “Tucson Resilient Together,” is ripe with Green New Deal mandates that are aimed at forcing citizens out of their cars, controlling their lives, and destroying the community. By 2050, they plan to force 40% of all people living in Tucson to commute by walking, cycling, taking public transportation, or “rolling” (whatever that means). And that’s just the start.
They actually spell out as part of their strategy that around 25% of people will be walking as their form of transportation by 2050. This is Tucson, Arizona, right? Have these people lived here during any of our summers? Who in their right mind would want to walk (or even cycle or “roll”) as a regular form of transportation when it’s 110 degrees outside?
But maybe they think they can force this to happen with another one of their strategies: putting people on road diets (which, by the way, was recently approved in a Scottsdale City Council meeting). In case you’re not familiar with this approach, road diets reduce the number of travel lanes and the width of the road to make room for other modes of transportation like bike lanes. They have been used in failed leftist cities like Portland, which should tell you all you need to know. And as you probably guessed by now, they will only increase traffic congestion.
Ah…but don’t worry dear citizen. All of this is done with your health and wellbeing in mind. After all, according to Tucson’s plan, you’re just a fat slob who drives too much, which has been resulting in higher absenteeism and loss of productivity. So, your government overlords are going to take care of you by forcing you out of your car and making you walk 150 minutes per week.
But for those who don’t plan on walking, be sure to send Mayor Romero and the Tucson city council a thank you note because they haven’t forgotten about you. As you should probably know by now, no “climate change plan” is complete without investing even more in public transportation. And Tucson has really outdone themselves this time. The massive increase in public transit will include hiring 900 people EACH YEAR to drive all of the buses for a total of 27,000 new full-time transit employees.
Currently, Tucson has a total of 420 bus drivers for their entire system. This increase would make the Tucson Transit Department the largest employer in Pima County. Given the fact that recent public transit reports indicate a significant decline in ridership since the COVID pandemic, this an absolutely absurd investment. And as crazy as all of this seems, the impact can’t be understated: this is now the governing planning document for the 2nd largest city in Arizona, where city staff will be working around the clock to implement their dream of a 15-minute city where cars will be phased out and everything you need will supposedly be available by foot, bike, or public transit. It’s obvious that they hate where we live and how we get around, and this is their solution. But just like with so many of these climate policies, don’t expect politicians or government bureaucrats to be doing any of this. They just want to force it on all of us regular folks.
Help Protect Freedom in Arizona by Joining Our Grassroots Network
Arizona needs to have a unified voice promoting economic freedom and prosperity, and the Free Enterprise Club is committed to making that happen. But we can’t do it alone. We need YOU!
Join our FREE Grassroots Action List to stay up to date on the latest battles against big government and how YOU can help influence crucial bills at the Arizona State Legislature.
by admin | Mar 16, 2023 | Misc, News and Updates
The Biden administration and radical environmentalists will do anything they can to enforce their climate change agenda on the American people. And now, they are using ozone control measures to do just that right here in the state of Arizona.
On September 16, 2022, the United States Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) reclassified Maricopa County as a moderate nonattainment area of ozone limits under the Clean Air Act. This basically means that, according to the EPA, Maricopa County’s ozone levels are too high and therefore our state—including its individual citizens, motorists, and businesses—will be forced to adopt ozone control measures.
So, what exactly caused Arizona’s rise in ozone levels? Was it more cars on the road? A dramatic increase in air travel to our state? Too many cows releasing methane into the air?
No. The main contributor was the adoption of the 2015 EPA guidelines, which dropped acceptable ozone levels from 75ppb to 70ppb. That’s right. Government bureaucrats simply moved the goal posts. On top of that, multiple studies have shown that any higher ozone levels in Maricopa County are simply being caused by natural events, which means that the issue is very much out of the control of our citizens. In fact, just look at the numbers from 2020 during the COVID-19 pandemic. Ozone levels increased from 79ppb to 87ppb even though business activity was halted, and we saw a dramatic decrease in cars on our roads.
But that hasn’t stopped the EPA. It still wants to use this issue and our noncompliance (which it manufactured), to impose a slew of restrictions and mandates on Maricopa County residents and businesses. Along with fines and penalties—like the withholding of Arizona’s share of federal transportation dollars—it is considering additional control measures. Among them are:
-
- More regulations on business
- Expanding transit (which has seen a steady decline in ridership in Maricopa County)
- Adopting vision-zero zoning programs (which spend millions of dollars until a city achieves zero traffic-related fatalities)
- Removing internal combustion engine (ICE) vehicles from the roadways
- Vehicle trip reduction requirements
Those last two should stand out to you. The EPA wants Arizona to follow in the footsteps of California, where its regulatory board, the California Air Resources Board (CARB), officially adopted a plan to ban the internal combustion engine. The rationale behind this was that banning ICE cars was needed to ensure ozone compliance. But even the Maricopa Association of Governments (MAG) admits that removing all 4 million ICE vehicles in the metropolitan Phoenix area would not bring Maricopa County into compliance with the EPA’s ozone requirements.
Then, there’s the push for vehicle trip reduction requirements. In other words, the government is looking to limit your ability to drive—or tax the hell out of you for the miles you do drive. And once again, this would mimic what’s going on in California, where government bureaucrats are looking to advance a vehicle mileage tax in San Diego.
Of course, none of this will bring Arizona into compliance. But perhaps even scarier is that if any of these new measures are adopted, they cannot be rolled back. The Clean Air Act prohibits any “backsliding.”
That’s why we must work to stop the EPA from forcing us to adopt these radical regulations and restrictions. So far, our state legislature has gotten started by issuing HCM2008, which urges the Biden administration and Congress to stop the EPA from imposing these penalties on our state. But we can’t stop there. These measures are coercive, punitive, and likely illegal. And that’s why we intend to fight it through any legal means necessary.
Help Protect Freedom in Arizona by Joining Our Grassroots Network
Arizona needs to have a unified voice promoting economic freedom and prosperity, and the Free Enterprise Club is committed to making that happen. But we can’t do it alone. We need YOU!
Join our FREE Grassroots Action List to stay up to date on the latest battles against big government and how YOU can help influence crucial bills at the Arizona State Legislature.
by admin | Mar 8, 2023 | News and Updates, Tax
Today, the Arizona Free Enterprise Club released a new study evaluating the project investments proposed in the Maricopa County Association of Governments (MAG) “2050 Momentum Plan” funded through a half-cent Proposition 400 sales tax extension.
In his analysis, transportation scholar Randal O’Toole determined that MAG failed to employ the most basic “rational planning process” which requires developing a wide range of alternatives, evaluating those alternatives, and monitoring their implementation. This abdication of the rational planning process is even more confounding post-COVID pandemic which radically changed travel behaviors, and highlights that MAG was more interested in pushing an agenda than devising transportation policies that could respond to real-world problems and withstand objective scrutiny.
O’Toole investigated claims that MAG’s Plan would alleviate congestion, improve air quality, enhance social equity, and improve safety, all of which either fall short, are unsubstantiated with evidence, or in fact worsen. Notably, the study reveals:
-
- The Plan provides no explanation for the steady decline in transit ridership in Maricopa County under the existing regional transportation tax. In particular, transit ridership declined from 2009 to 2019 despite population increasing by over one million residents in the region.
- The Plan fails to recognize the significant shift in travel behavior post COVID-19 (more telecommuting, less rush hour commuting) which further decimated transit ridership, with 2022 boardings being only 55% of what it was in 2019.
- MAG fails to disclose any of the computations used to determine outcomes in the Plan. Key information such as projections for future transit ridership, assumptions used for future changes in traffic congestion and travel behavior, or calculations on how safety will be improved have been withheld from the public.
- The Plan inequitably allocates 40 percent of the tax revenue to transit despite transit carrying less than 1 percent of the region’s passenger miles and zero miles of freight.
- $2.3B in the Plan funds “active transportation” or non-vehicular travel as well as “transportation demand management” projects, all of which are meant to reduce single-occupancy vehicular travel. This includes 21 miles of bicycle lanes on minor arterials and collectors which will most likely reduce capacity and increase congestion for auto traffic.
- The Plan lacks any coherent or substantiated strategy to reduce congestion in the region despite congestion being the predominant concern of county travelers, costing them nearly $1,200 per auto commuter in 2019.
- Less than 2 percent of commuters who earn less than $25,000 a year take transit and a small fraction of the 2.5% of workers in households without a car in the region utilize transit. As such, the Plan neglects to help the vast majority of low-income commuters in the region who can access twice as many jobs in a 20-minute auto drive than in a 60-minute transit ride.
The data in this study should help inform lawmakers’ decisions regarding formulating transportation funding and policy in Maricopa County going forward. “The Prop 400 extension represents the largest piece of transportation policy lawmakers will consider in the next two decades,” stated Scot Mussi, President of the Arizona Free Enterprise Club. “It is critical that it is informed by the data of how people choose to travel in the region, not ideological agendas and pie-in-the-sky utopian ideas being imposed on taxpayers by bureaucrats.”
The full study can be accessed here.
Help Protect Freedom in Arizona by Joining Our Grassroots Network
Arizona needs to have a unified voice promoting economic freedom and prosperity, and the Free Enterprise Club is committed to making that happen. But we can’t do it alone. We need YOU!
Join our FREE Grassroots Action List to stay up to date on the latest battles against big government and how YOU can help influence crucial bills at the Arizona State Legislature.
by admin | Mar 3, 2023 | Corporate Welfare, News and Updates, Tax
No one likes to pay taxes. So, understandably, businesses who can afford to hire lobbyists go to the state capitol every year to figure out how to pay less of them. Some of these large corporations have been so successful, they don’t pay any taxes at all.
Take, for example, the beneficiaries of the R&D tax credit program, which in Arizona is so generous, there is an almost $2 billion carryforward of accrued credits which can be applied for 10 years. This effectively means that there are too many credits and not enough tax liability to absorb them. How would you like the ability to not pay taxes for the next decade?
For “small” businesses with fewer than 150 employees, they are eligible for a “refund” of up to 75% of the excess credits, capped at $5M every year. There is a word for a business receiving a tax refund when you have zero tax liability—it is a subsidy. Any tax system that excludes some businesses from paying while making everyone else pick up the tab is dubious tax policy. But to then allow those same businesses to collect additional subsidies—paid for by all other taxpayers—is downright wrong. It is nothing more than government redistribution to the politically connected.
It is also likely unconstitutional. For good reason, the framers of Arizona’s Constitution were suspicious of corporate interests accruing political power that outsized average taxpayers, seizing preferential treatment for themselves at the expense of everyone else. As such, Article 9, Section 7 of the Constitution, also known as “The Gift Clause,” prohibits donations, grants, or subsidies from the government to corporate or private interests. A refundable tax credit is irrefutably a subsidy.
That has not stopped lawmakers and lobbyists from pushing this year’s expansion of the program through SB1562. This bill would expand the existing program for “small” firms receiving refundable credits from $5M to $10M a year and creates a new program that allows up to $50M a year in unused credits by larger companies to be converted $0.75 on the dollar (i.e. made refundable) for reinvestment.
This is a massive expansion in the refundability of the program and lays the groundwork for all $2 billion to be given away in subsidies to big businesses. And considering the state only generates $850M a year in corporate taxes, lawmakers should instead look to cut corporate income taxes across the board, rather than look to creative ways to hand out $2B in subsidies.
Proponents may argue that these aren’t really subsidies, as the money must be used for qualifying reinvestment projects and that taxpayers ultimately benefit because these projects are a public good because they must be used for “sustainability” or water-saving capital projects or for various workforce development projects or tuition reimbursement. Well, this is a stretch to say the least. What business wouldn’t want regular capital projects designed to save them money overall or training, education, and employee benefits such as tuition reimbursement defrayed? While schemes such as Bernie Sanders “free” tuition to attend woke universities, compliments of the taxpayers, are wildly unpopular with the general public, SB1562 is a creative repackaging. The only hook is, to have your tuition footed by taxpayers, you have to work for a politically connected corporation.
In reality, there isn’t a difference to a business in giving them a bag of cash or reimbursing their normal business costs—it all serves their bottom line. Unfortunately for every other taxpayer, it comes out of their pocketbooks. Despite the army of lobbyists hired to push for SB1562, we hope taxpayers ultimately win the battle this year to expand corporate welfare at the legislature.
Help Protect Freedom in Arizona by Joining Our Grassroots Network
Arizona needs to have a unified voice promoting economic freedom and prosperity, and the Free Enterprise Club is committed to making that happen. But we can’t do it alone. We need YOU!
Join our FREE Grassroots Action List to stay up to date on the latest battles against big government and how YOU can help influence crucial bills at the Arizona State Legislature.
Recent Comments