by admin | Aug 12, 2021 | Misc, News and Updates
Rules for thee, but not for me. Apparently, that’s the lesson a growing number of Arizona public schools want to teach students in the coming year. (Perhaps they’re looking to replace science, since it appears they’re not interested in following that anymore.)
At the end of June, Governor Ducey signed HB2898, which included a provision prohibiting a city, town, county, school board, or charter school governing body from requiring students or teachers to wear masks.
That should be simple enough to follow. But it sent teachers’ unions and the establishment media into a tailspin. After all, the left LOVES mask mandates for kids, even though they may cause psychological harm and no study can back them up.
So, instead of teaching students a proper civics lesson about what it means to follow the law, various K-12 school districts have chosen to violate it.
At the time this article was written, 10 public school districts in Arizona had announced that students and staff will be required to wear masks as they head back to school:
You would think they would have learned their lesson. Public school districts that turned their backs on parents and students paid the price earlier this year.
But they’d rather choose lawlessness. And in the process, our schools are setting a terrible example for kids by demonstrating to them that following the rules is optional.
Of course, these school districts will tell you that they’re listening to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), and their decision to require masks is based on “science.” But what they fail to tell you is that the CDC actually allowed itself to be manipulated by the American Federation of Teachers (AFT). And AFT, which happens to be one of the most powerful teachers’ unions in the country, considered itself the CDC’s “true thought partner” on reopening schools.
While COVID was certainly an issue that warranted some action, it never should have included trampling on the rights of the people—especially kids in schools. And the government never should have been allowed to overstep its bounds.
That’s why Arizona lawmakers and Governor Ducey exercised good judgment when they took important steps to protect our state from more COVID overreach.
But if public school districts want to continue to violate the rights of its teachers and students by requiring masks, they should prepare themselves for more lawsuits like the one from Phoenix Union High School District biology teacher Douglas Hester.
And parents should certainly be given Empowerment Scholarship Accounts (ESA) to use their tax dollars to find alternative learning solutions for their children.
Students deserve access to the best education possible. And parents should be able to choose a school for their children that won’t teach them that it’s ok to violate the law.
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by admin | Aug 5, 2021 | News and Updates, Tax
Who doesn’t want more money in their pocket? After a brutal year that featured COVID lockdowns, small businesses and families trying to make ends meet could certainly use some.
And Arizona Republicans delivered.
At the end of June, the state legislature passed a $1.8 billion tax cut, the single largest tax cut in Arizona history. And Governor Ducey didn’t waste any time before signing the budget, which shouldn’t come as a big surprise. As Senator Mesnard explained while voting in favor of the budget:
At the end of the day, when this passes, every single taxpayer in Arizona will get a cut. Every single one.
It was certainly a day worth celebrating. But not everyone joined the party.
Apparently, Invest in Arizona, a political committee sponsored by Arizona Education Association and Stand for Children, isn’t happy with the idea of every Arizona taxpayer receiving a cut. In an effort to block the historic tax cuts, the group filed three referendums that include components from three bills passed this legislative session:
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- SB1828, which provides tax relief for all Arizonans and establishes a single income tax rate of 2.5%, subject to the attainment of certain general fund revenue thresholds.
- SB1827, which establishes a maximum income tax rate of 4.5%.
- SB1783, which provides the option to small business owners to file and pay their taxes as a small business.
But what Invest in Arizona doesn’t understand is that taxpayers like you deserve a break. And with Arizona sitting pretty thanks to a $4 billion surplus, the time is now. That’s why the Arizona Free Enterprise Club filed a lawsuit last month against Invest in Arizona’s tax cut referendums.
These three bills weren’t just historic tax cuts that benefit all Arizona taxpayers. They also directly provide for the support and maintenance of the state, were key aspects of the state’s budget, and therefore are not referrable by Invest in Arizona.
The Arizona Constitution even provides that legislative actions “for the support and maintenance of the departments of state government and state institutions” may not be the subject of a referendum. And as our complaint contends, these provisions “provide for, and directly relate to, the generation of revenues that are remitted to the general fund and appropriated to various agencies, departments and instrumentalities of the state government.” That means they are not referable.
It also means that Arizona Secretary of State Katie Hobbs, who is named in the lawsuit, must refuse to accept for filing, verification, or certification any petition in support of these three referendums.
Now, it’s up to the Maricopa County Superior Court to do what’s right by granting our motion for preliminary injunction and ultimately deciding in favor of every Arizona taxpayer.
This tax reform package wasn’t adopted by unelected bureaucrats. It was voted on and approved by 90 lawmakers who were duly elected by the people of Arizona. And the tax package was then signed by Governor Ducey, who was also duly elected by the people of Arizona.
Invest in Arizona may not like it, but the people have already spoken. And that means these historic tax cuts should be here to stay.
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by admin | Aug 3, 2021 | Elections, News and Updates
They said that it didn’t happen, it couldn’t happen, and that anyone who even dared to mention fraud in reference to the past election was a “conspiracy theorist” propagating “The Big Lie.” They began asserting and endlessly repeating that this was the “safest and most secure” election in U.S. history, ironically implying that past elections were actually not safe and secure? And they produced no objective measure as to why the claim is valid and not simply rhetoric regurgitated to stifle free discussion and common-sense reforms.
What’s the saying? The difference between conspiracy theory and truth is about 6-12 months? Just as the “conspiracy theory” about the origins of COVID, which was censored by Big Tech and suppressed by the corporate media, has now become accepted as likely true, a Grand Jury just indicted an Arizona voter of voter fraud.
It happened like this—a Scottsdale woman cast not just her own ballot by mail but also forged her mother’s signature on an early ballot affidavit just days after she had passed away. Her mother had passed on October 5th, but ballots in Maricopa County weren’t even mailed to voters until October 7th.
And how was this caught? Were there any inherent safeguards in the system to prevent this or to find it once it occurred? No. It took a group of private citizens who looked through voter rolls and submitted to the Attorney General’s office a list of approximately 450 names the group alleged were likely deceased but cast a ballot.
After review, the Attorney General’s office said the list contained names of some individuals who were still alive, some who were deceased but passed away after voting, some who were deceased and did not vote (but still received a ballot by mail), and, of course, this individual. A ballot cast, and a ballot counted, from someone who died before their ballot was even sent.
An illegal vote cast and counted deprives all legal voters of their full voting rights. It gives one voter twice the voice of another. One person, one vote—that’s the foundation of a democracy. And, unfortunately, once a ballot by mail is accepted into the system it cannot be uncast or uncounted. It remains, and forever will remain, in the official tally.
With voting by mail, once an election official subjectively determines (within seconds) that a signature on a ballot affidavit matches what is on the voter file, the ballot is removed and separated from the envelope. Forever. There is nothing to connect the ballot to the envelope, and that ballot is baked into the system.
This is why upfront security measures are necessary. It’s why, despite misinformation from Democrats, the media, and woke corporations labeling them as “Jim Crow 2.0,” conservatives pushed so hard this session for a host of election integrity bills. It’s why conservatives passed HB 2054 to ensure deceased individuals are regularly removed from voter rolls. It’s why conservatives passed SB 1485 to ensure the Active Early Voter List is regularly maintained to be clean and current. It’s why they tried to pass SB 1713 to require real voter identification on mail-in ballots, among many other reforms.
While this is just one case that has been proven, it came from a list of only 450 voters, and it came from the work of private individuals—not government or any integrated safeguard. And with this indictment comes also an admission from the Attorney General’s office that some of these individuals are deceased and still received a ballot by mail. How many other undiscovered cases exist?
This shouldn’t come as a surprise to anyone. We have evidence from a sitting Congressman whose mother passed away 10 years ago but her ballot was still mailed in 2020. And nearly every voter has anecdotal evidence of either themselves or someone they know who moved into a new house and received ballots from the previous owners or tenants. It happens, and everyone knows it. At best, most individuals are law-abiding citizens and simply discard the ballot. But it still presents opportunity for fraud.
That’s why these common-sense reforms are crucial. And it’s why future reforms, especially a continued push for universal voter ID requirements, are necessary.
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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!
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by admin | Jul 30, 2021 | News and Updates, Tax
It turns out that Arizona Democrats like welfare for the wealthy after all. After spending weeks railing against a historic $1.8 billion, across the board tax cut that will benefit all Arizona taxpayers and small businesses, Democrats in the House and Senate overwhelmingly voted in favor of SB1124, legislation that (as Senator Javan Mesnard described during his vote explanation) is the definition of welfare for the wealthy.
SB 1124 was the ultimate special interest tax package, so loathsome that it was snuck through the last week of session to avoid the stench of lobbyist backscratching. In reality it was the only way they could put taxpayers on the hook for over $200 million to fund an absurd Low-Income Housing Tax Credit (LIHTC) and Angel Investor Tax Credit program that will do nothing but line the pockets of wealthy Developers and Venture Capitalists.
But this didn’t seem to bother most Democrats, who on one hand refer to broad based tax cuts as “racist,” but are perfectly fine doling out tax carveouts and subsidies to their wealthy allies.
So now we are stuck with a Venture Capital Program that is government picking winners and losers at its worst. The Angel Investor tax credit shields “qualified investors” (i.e. rich people with political friends) from risk by giving them tax credits for their investments. And the icing on the cake—any profits from these taxpayer backed investments are exempt from capital gains taxes. This is welfare for the wealthy—and Democrats happily passed it with the help of a few Republicans.
The Low-Income Housing Tax Credit scam may be even worse. This is a program that has been riddled with fraud and abuse, with banks being forced to issue multi-billion dollar settlements after being caught colluding with developers to manipulate the price they pay for credits to drive down their overall tax liability.
Basically, a developer will qualify for these credits and then sell them to banks and investors who provide the upfront funding. But state level tax credits are less valuable to investors, and they end up buying them for around fifty cents on the dollar. Meaning that of the $160 million program created in SB1124, $80 million goes only to line the pockets of banks and investors, leaving the remaining half for actual development.
The billions that have been spent on these programs across the country have not shown to increase the number of affordable housing units, and they cost above market rate to build. With this vote, lawmakers and Governor Ducey have only given a handout to banks and investors so that a select few developers can build high rises in places like Phoenix and Tucson. It’s atrocious tax policy and a poor solution to help the poor.
So, while Republicans passed an incredible tax package just weeks ago, unfortunately they immediately followed it with the worst of tax policy—Democrat beloved welfare for the wealthy. As Senator Petersen put it, these are not programs dreamed up by lawmakers. They are sweetheart deals brought in by special interest lobbyists, working for a handful of wealthy individuals trying to get their tax liability as close to zero as possible.
This bill should have gone down in flames. Democrats, there’s no hiding it—you support welfare for the wealthy. Republicans, this is a vote that conservatives will not forget.
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by admin | Jul 29, 2021 | Misc, News and Updates
Sometimes, it’s not just what the media says. It’s what they don’t say.
Last week, the Arizona Auditor General concluded its financial investigation into Higley Unified School District (HUSD). And the findings of the report are mind blowing.
The Auditor General found that HUSD’s former superintendent Dr. Denise Birdwell, may have conspired with employees of Education Facilities Development Services (EFDS), along with Hunt & Caraway’s former president, to circumvent school district procurement rules to improperly award Higley’s $2,557,125 Project development services contract to EFDS.
But if you thought that was bad, there’s more. The report also alleges that Dr. Birdwell misused public monies when she authorized or caused the unlawful use of $6 million in restricted public funds toward construction of two new schools. And to top it all off, Dr. Birdwell, along with Gary Aller and Steven Nielsen from EFDS, appear to have concealed their wrongdoing by certifying false information on Higley records.
A State Grand Jury indicted Dr. Birdwell on 18 felony counts. In addition, Gary Aller, Steven Nielsen, and Kay Hartwell Hunnicutt (who shared a home and checking account with Dr. Birdwell) were indicted on three felony counts each.
This is a huge story! And there’s certainly more to it. (You can read a good write up with more details on AZ Free News.)
And yet, for the most part, corporate media has largely ignored the scandal!
Sure, there’s been some write ups here and there, but just look at how this story has been treated by the media when compared to Arizona’s Empowerment Scholarship Account (ESA) program. Gallons of ink have been spilled by The Arizona Republic covering supposed ESA abuse. And that’s just a small fraction of what has occurred in Higley.
Now, run a quick search on Google or Twitter. You’ll find that AZ Central has been equally, if not more, vocal online. But when you run a search about the scandal involving Dr. Birdwell, there’s only a handful of stories from the local media, and just one on AZ Central.
The same can be said of the media’s coverage of any alleged charter school fraud. The Arizona Republic and its digital version AZ Central can’t wait to sink its teeth into stories like that.
But they conveniently ignore the Dr. Birdwell scandal in Higley even though it dwarfs pretty much every other K-12 fraud case in the last five years.
This is outrageous! The rampant fraud in Higley has cost taxpayers like you millions of dollars. But the media refuses to cover it because it would undermine their assault on school choice. They want to protect their narrative that district schools are bastions of accountability while charter and private schools are cesspits of fraud.
But school choice is the civil rights issue of our generation. And ESAs allow parents to use their tax dollars for alternative learning solutions. This gives families access to the funds they need to tailor an education that best fits their children.
That’s a win-win for everyone, unless of course you’re a teachers’ union—or a corporate media outlet that wants to protect said unions.
It’s no wonder why fewer people trust the mainstream media. Their only reason to exist appears to be to protect their own interests. And their journalists have become slanted not just in what they say, but in what they don’t say. Just look at how they’ve handled the Dr. Birdwell scandal—if you can find it.
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.
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