Swampy D.C Program Rampant With Fraud, Being Pushed in Arizona.
Every legislative session, lawmakers are duped by rosy tax credit programs, sold as either robust jobs programs or silver bullets to our social woes. This year HB2732, sponsored by Representative Ben Weninger, is being sold as both. The Low-Income Housing Tax...
New Study Shows Low Income Housing Tax Credit Program Fails at Delivering Affordable Housing in Arizona
Today the Arizona Free Enterprise Club released a new study evaluating the cost of Low-Income Housing Tax Credits (LIHTC) in Arizona and Washington and how LIHTC have performed compared to other government backed housing affordability programs. The review determined...
2020 Democrat Tax Hike Plan: $5.73 BILLION DOLLARS
For years Democrats have complained that virtually every government program in Arizona is underfunded because of all the “draconian” tax cuts that have occurred. Given that most national rankings show Arizona is middle of the pack among states when it comes to overall...
Pro-Growth Recommendations on Rolling Back Tax Increases
As the Club highlighted last week, through a combination of economic growth and tax and fee increases, Arizona is likely to have a budget surplus this year approaching $1 Billion dollars. Adding to this figure was news announced on Friday that the state expects to...
Education Groups Demand More K-12 Funding While School Districts go on Administration Spending Spree
Here is an under-reported education fact: K-12 schools in Arizona have received over $1 Billion in new funding from the state over the last two years. This infusion of cash is the largest education spending increase in state history, boosting per pupil funding by 20...
$700 Million and Growing: Arizona Enjoying Another Huge Budget Surplus
The Joint Budget Legislative Committee released their October Fiscal Update, and it was more good news for the state budget coffers. September tax receipts were $120 Million above the adopted budget forecast, an 8.7% increase over the prior year. The explosion in tax...
Proposal to Increase Property and Sales Taxes Would Derail Arizona’s Economic Boom
Arizona’s economy has been on fire. In just the last year the Grand Canyon state has created 75,000 jobs and Maricopa county leads the nation in population growth. The state is more productive than ever too. Arizona now ranks third fastest growing GDP in...
Getting Conform and Reform Right
As the Club has covered for over a year, Arizona taxpayers are facing the largest income tax increase in state history if a proper federal tax conformity plan is not adopted by the legislature. The department of revenue estimates that the conformity tax increase would...
Arizona GOP Goes All-In on Job Killing Tax Hikes
The Arizona Republican Party has decided to become the party of tax hikes. Yesterday, party Chairwoman Kelli Ward announced that the GOP is officially backing an amendment to the Arizona Constitution to impose a permanent $500 Million dollar sales tax increase for...
Why are Lawmakers Pushing Billions in Tax Hikes Despite Record State Revenues?
An interesting paradox has developed at the legislature this year. Even though state policymakers are sitting on record tax revenues and a robust Arizona economy, they seem more obsessed with tax increases than ever before. So far this session there are efforts by...
Legislature Must Act Quickly to Stop Conformity Tax Hike
For over a year, the Club has been urging policymakers to address the looming tax conformity crisis. After the passage of the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act in Congress in 2017, it was realized that Arizona taxpayers could pay as much as $300 million more in FY2020 as a result...
Arizona Taxpayers Get Hit with New Vehicle License Tax
Lawmakers can’t say they weren’t warned. Last year, when the Arizona legislature proposed giving their taxing authority away to the Director of the Arizona Department of Transportation (ADOT), we fought hard to stop what the Club considered one of the worst...