by admin | Mar 10, 2022 | News and Updates, Tax
We tried to warn them. But Pinal County officials decided to move forward with their illegal and unconstitutional transportation tax anyway. Thankfully, on Tuesday, the Arizona Supreme Court issued a tremendous victory for Pinal County taxpayers and the rule of law.
And while it’s disappointing that taxpayers were forced to pay thousands of dollars to defend this illegal tax scheme in court, the Pinal County Board of Supervisors will now have to end the collection of this tax and issue refunds to aggrieved taxpayers.
A tax on retail sales below $10,000
This all started in 2016 when Pinal County officials began turning the political wheels to send a $640 million tax increase to voters to fund a wide array of transportation projects throughout the region. But after unveiling the plan, the effort quickly spurred opposition from retailers, home builders, auto dealers, and multiple taxpayer watchdog groups.
You would think that county officials would have taken this as a sign that the community didn’t support their proposal. But no. Instead, they developed a new plan to try to buy off their political opponents.
In order to eliminate opposition to their scheme from certain businesses, county officials added a special carve-out for purchases that exceeded $10,000 from paying the new tax. Interesting move, isn’t it?
But this meant that the new tax would apply only to retail sales below $10,000—making the day-to-day purchases of lower-income citizens more heavily taxed than more expensive items.
It also meant pushing a tax scheme that likely violated state law. County officials were aware that capping the tax at $10,000 wasn’t authorized by statute, which is why Pinal County introduced HB2156, legislation that was quickly killed by lawmakers.
A violation of Arizona law
Arizona’s tax laws are already some of the most confusing in the country, and Pinal County’s transportation tax only made that worse. If counties could be allowed to create new tax classifications in addition to the ones already established under state law, Arizona’s tax laws would become even more confusing with different taxes at different rates.
This is not what state lawmakers intended. County officials cannot be allowed to make their own rules. After all, this is the sort of thinking that pushes businesses out of our state and keeps new businesses from springing up inside our state. That’s why the Goldwater Institute challenged the Pinal County transportation tax in court. And the Club supported the effort every step of the way. Even the Arizona Department of Revenue sided with taxpayers on this one!
But Pinal County still tried to claim that it could subdivide the tax in this way because the law allows counties to set a “variable rate” in a tax, and that it was setting the “rate” of some sales at zero. Thankfully, the Arizona Supreme Court saw right through that argument, explaining that “In this case, Pinal County’s two-tiered tax rate structure—which established a positive tax rate and a tax rate of zero percent—sets fixed tax rates that never vary and are never subject to change.”
This is a big win for taxpayers in Pinal County and across Arizona. In the midst of a worsening economy, rising inflation, and near-record gas prices, our government should be seeking every way possible to put more money back into the pockets of its citizens. And if other counties are considering similar schemes, now a clear message has been sent.
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, 2022 | Corporate Welfare, News and Updates, Tax
Arizona lawmakers are currently living in “La La Land.” No, really. They want to dole out $150 million of your dollars to sign checks to woke Hollywood producers to literally California our Arizona.
SB1708, sponsored by Senator David Gowan, passed out of the Senate last week by a vote of 21-7. It provides a tax credit for a percentage of movie production costs: 15% for productions up to $10 million, 17.5% for productions between $10 and $35 million, 20% for productions over $35 million, and the opportunity for an extra 2.5% on top for positions held by Arizona residents, if the production is filmed in a qualified facility or primarily on location, or if it was produced in association with a long-term tenant in a qualified production facility.
The worst part—it’s refundable. This means that if Hollywood producers wipe out their tax liability to zero, the remaining tax credits come as a check from you, the taxpayer.
Movie production is a multi-billion-dollar industry. They do not need a subsidy. But because one state was willing to cut them a check a few decades ago, they now seek the highest bidder. It’s a race to the bottom for Arizona. Very soon, $150 million won’t be enough, and the industry will send more lobbyists down to the Capitol to razzle dazzle lawmakers into doling out more taxpayer dollars.
These production companies are more than able and happy to pick up and jet-set from one location another—even in the middle of production. If Arizona isn’t willing to pay more, another state or country will, and we’ll be left in the dust.
Georgia taxpayers gave the movie industry $1.2 billion last year. To keep up, California, home of actual Hollywood, is doubling its cap from $330 million a year to $660 million. Kevin Costner is currently lobbying the Utah legislature to provide a carveout in their $8.3 million cap for credits, raising it for movie productions in rural areas. Costner is telling Utah he wants to film 5 films there if the cap is raised. And star struck New Mexico recently more than doubled its cap, after spending hundreds of millions from their general fund to pay off a backlog of credits.
But while these states are fighting to out-bid each other, others have scrapped the idea. 13 states have eliminated their Hollywood subsidies in the past 10 years, and several others have scaled theirs back. And for good reason. A recent study of the subsidies in New York, Louisiana, Georgia, Connecticut and Massachusetts found that despite $10 billion in taxpayer dollars spent, there was no statistically significant impact on employment.
If this seems like such a bad idea that it should be illegal—it likely is. The Arizona Supreme Court recently ruled that the government cannot include “anticipated indirect benefits” such as projected sales and tax revenue as part of the consideration with a private party under the Gift Clause in the Arizona Constitution. In other words, Hollywood dazzling lawmakers with projected economic development leading to increased tax revenue is an “irrelevant indirect benefit” that cannot be included in the consideration.
In addition to the bill’s terrible tax policy and obvious unconstitutionality, Arizonans do not want their hard-earned dollars being used to send checks to Hollywood. We do not want to subsidize their woke movies, and do not want thousands of liberal California voters shipped into Arizona on our own dime.
Tell Your Lawmakers to OPPOSE SB1708!
Right now, lawmakers are considering a $150 million REFUNDABLE tax credit for woke Hollywood producers.
Arizonans have been shouting “Don’t California my Arizona” for years. But SB1708 pays to literally California our Arizona, shipping in thousands of Hollywood voters on the taxpayer’s dime. Regardless of the industry, Arizona taxpayers don’t want their hard-earned dollars going to corporate welfare with any refundable credit.
Send a message to Arizona lawmakers today and tell them Don’t California our Arizona: OPPOSE corporate welfare and OPPOSE SB1708!
by admin | Mar 3, 2022 | Elections, News and Updates
This week got off to a great start. On Monday, the Arizona House passed HB2492, a bill that would safeguard our voter rolls by ensuring that only qualified, U.S. citizens are registered to vote, able to vote in Presidential elections, and eligible to vote by mail.
But the good news didn’t stop there.
The House also passed SCR1012, known as the Arizonans for Voter ID Act. And with the Senate already passing this ballot referral late last week, that means the people of Arizona will now get to decide on universal voter ID in November.
This is an important step to ensure the integrity of our elections. “Easy to vote and hard to cheat” should be the benchmark for every election we have. And in Arizona, voters certainly have many ways to exercise their vote, including day-of-polls, early voting, and mail-in voting.
But the security of our elections has been a different story—as the audit report showed this past September. Universal voter ID here in Arizona would help solve this critical issue. If passed by the voters in this November’s election, this initiative would:
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- Improve existing in-person voter ID requirements.
- Establish voter ID for mail-in ballots.
- Deter ballot harvesting by enhancing voter ID requirements for in-person ballot drop off.
- Provide a free voter ID option to lawfully registered Arizona voters who need it for voting.
This is a common-sense approach to election integrity that’s being increasingly implemented around the country. And it ensures that no matter when you vote, where you vote, or how you vote, identification will be required.
As you might expect, some Democrat leaders are having a meltdown, most especially Sen. Martín Quezada (D-LD29), who couldn’t help but tweet that not everyone has access to an ID. Apparently, Sen. Quezada didn’t read the bill because, as we mentioned above, this initiative gives every citizen access to a free voter ID.
But we do have to ask. If Sen. Quezada and other Democrats are so concerned about this, why don’t they also have a problem with other daily activities that require basic identification? The people of Arizona already have to provide ID for things like purchasing alcohol or cigarettes, obtaining a driver’s license, boarding a commercial flight, donating blood, opening a bank account, purchasing a firearm, receiving unemployment benefits, obtaining auto insurance, purchasing or renting a home, and more.
Isn’t the security of our elections equally—if not more important—than each of these?
Perhaps what’s most eye-opening is that Democrat leaders pushing back against universal voter ID are actually pushing back against their very own people.
Statewide polling from April of last year shows that an overwhelming majority of Arizona voters support voter ID requirements, including every race and ethnicity. And even a large majority of Democrats, 69%, support the idea of requiring all voters to provide ID prior to voting.
Now the people of Arizona will get a chance to decide once and for all this November. And if they want to protect the ballot of every qualified Arizona voter, they should choose to make universal voter ID a reality in our state.
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 | Feb 26, 2022 | News and Updates
Perhaps no issue has taken our nation by storm during the past year quite like Critical Race Theory (CRT). This cleverly disguised Marxist indoctrination uses words that sound harmless enough like “diversity,” “equity,” and “inclusion.” But floods of parents caught on early last year. And many made it their mission to stop CRT’s invasion of school districts across the nation.
Some people even believe it may have been the central issue that swung Virgina’s gubernatorial election to Republican candidate Glenn Youngkin. But right here in Arizona, the battle is not over.
As you may recall, Arizona lawmakers and Governor Ducey took important steps to prevent children from being indoctrinated in public schools by CRT through a budget reconciliation bill this past July. But in November, the Arizona Supreme Court struck down that ban, ruling that it was integrated in a bill that was a violation of the single subject requirement of the state constitution.
With the Arizona legislature back in session for the past two months, Republicans have made CRT a top priority. Earlier this month, the House already took an important step forward by approving a bill that would ban it from K-12 curriculum.
And now, the House has also passed House Concurrent Resolution (HCR) 2001, which would put a ban on teaching Critical Race Theory in Arizona’s K-12 schools on the ballot.
HCR2001 is currently awaiting action in the Senate, and not surprisingly the Democrats are irate. But what do you expect?
The more CRT has been exposed, the more the left has lied about its true nature and their ultimate agenda. They’ve tried to say it’s not taught in schools. Or that’s it’s not Marxist. Or that Republicans are just using it to get support.
But then, why did over 200 Arizonans who identify themselves as educators recently pledge to teach CRT and all other social justice-oriented curriculum to children, regardless of the law or the wishes of parents?
If it’s not taught in schools, then these so-called educators would have never made such a statement.
The fact is that slavery, legal racial discrimination, and racism are inconsistent with the founding principles of the United States. That’s why our nation fought a civil war to eliminate the first, waged political campaigns to get rid of the second, and has made the third unacceptable in the court of public opinion.
But by allowing an ideology like Critical Race Theory, our schools are in direct violation of the Fourteenth Amendment, the Civil Rights Act of 1964, and the Arizona Constitution.
That’s why the Club thinks it’s a great idea to put this issue in front of voters. The people of Arizona would finally have a chance to make their voices definitively heard. And there’s no doubt it would show that Arizonans believe that CRT does not belong in our state—or anywhere near our students.
Our nation was founded on the principle of the inherent and equal dignity of every person as an individual. But the Democrats don’t believe that. And that’s probably why a ban on CRT makes them so nervous.
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 | Feb 17, 2022 | Elections, News and Updates
The Left is determined to shove their so-called “election reforms” down the throats of the American people. After gaining control of Congress, the US House passed House Resolution 1 (HR1) in March of last year.
But their federal takeover of elections has been held up in the U.S. Senate for months, so they have moved to ‘Plan B’—taking over the election process in Arizona.
Earlier this month, a group called the Arizonans for Free and Fair Elections—which is nothing more than a consortium of liberal groups here in Arizona—dropped a ballot initiative that might as well be a leftist wish list of election law changes. But while they’ll tell you that this measure is about “expanding voting rights,” make no mistake. Just like with HR1, this ballot measure is about eliminating all meaningful safeguards in our voting process.
Take a look at the actual ballot language and see for yourself. Some of the provisions in this bill include:
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- Stipulating that anyone who applies for an Arizona driver’s license will be automatically registered to vote.
- Providing for same-day registration on election day.
- Making it easier for illegal immigrants to register and vote.
- Expanding taxpayer funding of political campaigns.
- Repealing Arizona’s ballot harvesting ban.
- Expanding and protecting early voting in Arizona.
- Allowing for people to vote not just out of precinct, but out of county.
- Implementing campaign finance law changes that violate our free speech rights.
- Increasing taxes on Arizona business owners. (Because…of course. Raising taxes on businesses will somehow improve our election process.)
Think about what this could mean for the future of our elections. In 2018, over 1,700 individuals in Arizona who had not provided Documented Proof of Citizenship voted in elections for federal office. But in 2020, the number of individuals ballooned to 11,600! A ballot measure like this would potentially make it even easier for illegals to vote and cultivate fraud.
It’s clear that the left is using this Arizona-based version of HR1 to attempt their election takeover at the ballot box. They must be stopped. And that’s why the Club is actively working to pass election integrity reforms at the legislature and is sponsoring the Arizona Voter ID initiative.
HB2492 would safeguard our voter rolls by ensuring that only qualified, U.S. citizens are registered to vote, are able to vote in Presidential elections, and are eligible to vote by mail. (You can sign our petition in support of HB2492 right here.) And HB2237 would prohibit election officials from registering individuals and allowing them to then vote on election day.
On top of that, the Arizonans for Voter ID Act Initiative consists of four key provisions that would:
- Improve existing in-person voter ID requirements.
- Require voter ID on mail-in ballots.
- Prevent ballot harvesting by enhancing voter ID requirements for in-person ballot drop off.
- Provide a free voter ID option to lawfully registered Arizona voters who need it for voting.
The people of Arizona are already used to providing basic identification in their daily lives to purchase alcohol or cigarettes, obtain a driver’s license, board a commercial flight, and more.
And this common-sense solution has plenty of support. Statewide polling from last year shows that an overwhelming majority of Arizona voters support voter ID requirements. In fact, every race and ethnicity support it along with the majority of Republicans, Independents, and Democrats.
That’s right. Even the majority of Democrats support voter ID requirements. Maybe someone should tell the Arizonans for Free and Fair Elections. It looks like even their own supporters are inclined to support our ballot measure.
Help Stop Illegals from Voting!
U.S Citizenship is a qualification for voting in both the Arizona constitution and Arizona law. Arizona voters overwhelmingly passed Proposition 200 in 2004 to ensure only US Citizens could register to vote by requiring that “the county recorder shall reject any application for registration that is not accompanied by satisfactory evidence of United States citizenship.”
Unfortunately, through the well-funded lawfare of the left, this requirement has been whittled away and the Federal Only Voter list has exploded. HB2492 will safeguard our voter rolls by ensuring only qualified, U.S Citizens are registered to vote, are able vote in Presidential elections, and eligible to vote by mail.
Will you sign our petition to PROTECT our voter registration process and SUPPORT HB2492?
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