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Dear LD26 (NW Tucson, OV) Taxpayer:
The Arizona chapter of Americans for Prosperity (AFP Arizona) has called the Legislative Session that ended June 27th the “worst in memory” for fiscal conservatives.
Unfortunately, your LD26 delegation had very poor performance, from the point of view of fiscal conservatism, which aims to 1) restrain government spending, 2) prevent tax increases, 3) balance budgets without resorting to debt or accounting gimmicks, and 4) avoid using tax dollars for wasteful corporate-welfare boondoggles.
Arizona Governor Janet Napolitano, aided by slim majorities in the Senate and House, failed Arizona taxpayers on all four counts.
The final General Fund budget was officially $9.9 billion, but roughly one billion in spending commitments were pushed off the books, meaning that the real budget is closer to $11 billion. In any case, the actual available cash is projected to be $9.2 billion at most, meaning that even the official budget is $700 million in the hole.
(And although the budget had very little in the way of real program cuts, the Governor and her allies did cut $5 million in funding for school choice vouchers for disabled and foster children. With an average amount of $4,000, the foster vouchers actually save the state money when children transfer out of traditional government school districts.)
Coming after four years of irresponsibly large budgets, the budget passed in June will continue to push the state toward a constitutional crisis in which the Arizona Supreme Court may choose between Prop 108, the rule that mandates a two-thirds legislative majority for tax increases, and Props 301 and 204, which mandate large automatic spending increases for government schools and government-subsidized health care. With Prop 108 safely out of the way, the Big Spenders can raise taxes and increase per-capita government spending to the economy-strangling levels of California, Michigan, or New Jersey.
LD26 Legislators who voted for the worst budget in memory (HB2209, et al) were:
Sen. Charlene Pesquiera (D) cpesquiera@azleg.gov
Rep. Pete Hershberger (R) phershberger@azleg.gov
Rep. Nancy Young Wright (D) nyoungwright@azleg.gov
Further, the Governor and her allies in the Legislature prevented the passage of measures that would permanently repeal the state equalization property tax rate. That failure leaves open the strong possibility that Arizona politicians will attempt to increase property taxes on homeowners and businesses by $250 million next year.
LD26 Legislators who voted to allow a $250 million property tax hike (HB2220) were:
Sen. Charlene Pesquiera (D) cpesquiera@azleg.gov
Rep. Pete Hershberger (R) phershberger@azleg.gov
Rep. Nancy Young Wright (D) nyoungwright@azleg.gov
(Hershberger and Young-Wright also voted against an important property tax levy limitation bill, HB2586, contributing to its defeat…)
On the corporate-welfare boondoggle front, the Governor and Legislature approved a scheme to grant the special privileges of issuing tax-free bonds and levying taxes to the developer of a rock and roll theme park in Eloy.
LD26 Legislators who voted in favor of the Eloy theme park scheme (SB1450) were:
Sen. Charlene Pesquiera (D) cpesquiera@azleg.gov
Rep. Pete Hershberger (R) phershberger@azleg.gov
LD26 Legislators who voted against the Eloy theme park scheme (SB1450) were:
Rep. Nancy Young Wright (D) nyoungwright@azleg.gov
On the bright side, one of the small victories for fiscal conservatives this year was blocking the creation of a new taxing district for baseball stadiums in Pima County—but we did not get much help from LD26 legislators.
LD26 Legislators who voted for the Pima County baseball stadium tax (SB1084) were:
Rep. Pete Hershberger (R) phershberger@azleg.gov
Rep. Nancy Young Wright (D) nyoungwright@azleg.gov
(Thankfully, the Senate did not get a chance to vote for the bill…)
For Liberty,
Arizona Director
Americans for Prosperity
(Arizona Federation of Taxpayers)
www.aztaxpayers.org
tjenney@afphq.org
(602) 478-0146
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