NEWS UPDATES
Arizona Teacher Pay: Separating Fact from Fiction
Last Thursday 50,000 individuals descended on the Arizona Capitol in support of a teacher’s strike; the state’s school districts shut down and turned away roughly 800,000 students. According to the narrative surrounding Arizona’s education system, nearly everyone is...
Possible Funding Options and Reforms for Ducey’s Teacher Pay Plan
It has been a week since Governor Ducey announced his “20 by 20” plan for Arizona teachers, and suffice to say there are more questions than answers on the long-term financial sustainability of the proposal. According to the latest JLBC estimates, if the Governor’s...
Income Tax Hikes to Fund Teacher Pay Raise?
Late last week the simmering dispute over teacher pay finally boiled over, and now the legislature and Governor Ducey are racing to meet the demands of angry educators. On Thursday, the Governor held a press conference announcing his commitment to fund a 20 percent...
Maricopa County Community College District Board Streamlines Faculty Benefits Negotiation Process
In a historic vote, the Board for the Maricopa County Community College District voted to end “meet and confer” process at their meeting in February. Meet and Confer is a form of collective bargaining by which the district’s faculty association has input into faculty...
SB 1146 Would Allow Unelected Bureaucrats to Raise Your Taxes
What is worse than your elected legislators voting for a tax increase? Your elected legislators voting to allow an unelected bureaucrat to raise your taxes. SB 1146 and HB 2166 would do just that. Both bills would grant the Director of Arizona Department of...
Unpacking the Local Control Debate
Each year there is a constant debate at the Legislature centered around a bevy of bills that preempt the authority of local government. For the most part, the proponents of “local control” for cities and counties hang their hat on the explanation that the superior...
Out of State Billionaire Pushing Renewable Mandate Initiative in Arizona
A liberal San Francisco billionaire has decided to bring his radical environmentalist agenda to Arizona. Earlier this month a group called NextGen announced their plans to fund a ballot initiative to amend our state constitution requiring non-governmental utility...
Costly Rural Tax Credit Program Moving Again at the Legislature
Last year’s Rural Tax Credit bill has popped up again at the legislature, a $30 million hit to the budget when Arizona can least afford it. Proponents of the bill are drawing support by selling this idea as a way to spark investment and growth in rural areas of...
Universities Don’t Belong in the Real Estate Business
Arizona’s framers and past policymakers were extremely mindful about protecting the state’s property tax system from being gamed by private interests. Arizona’s Constitution requires property taxes to be uniform between comparable property uses. It also prohibits...
Bonuses, Pay Raises and Benefits from AZ Business due to Tax Reform Now Exceed $200 Million Dollars!
With another surge of announcements from Arizona companies providing pay raises, bonuses and other benefits, over $200 Million dollars has now been put back into the pockets of Arizona employees and ratepayers as a result of federal tax reform. As of January 25th,...
ASU Law School Makes In-Kind Contribution to Goddard Initiative
It appears that Arizona State University may be providing taxpayer funded support to a ballot measure in violation of state law. In conjunction with the far-left National Lawyers Guild, the Sandra Day O’Conner School of Law is hosting a forum on the legal issues of...
Club Urges Legislature to Return Money to Taxpayers
Today the Arizona Free Enterprise Club in partnership with several other organizations sent a letter to the Governor and members of the Legislature urging them to return any additional revenue generated from the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act passed in Washington D.C. The...