The Budget is the sole focus of the AZ Legislature lately. The House and the Senate have adjourned until June 10 (could resume with 24 hours-notice if something changes). Passage of the budget that includes the 2.5% flat tax seems problematic. The Legislature is temporarily adjourned and the President of the AZ Senate, Karen Fann, is on vacation, while continued negotiations proceed behind closed doors – per usual.
Here is a partial summary of what the 2.5% flat tax would mean to most of us. As you can see, almost all of the benefit goes to the wealthiest among us while most of us see only modest gains. Most of us will only see about $40 when its all said and done.
$10,000 – $20,000 4.2% or $3 drop
$25,000 – 30,000 4.0% or $11 drop
$40,000 – $50,000 5.7% or $39 drop
$75,000 – $100,000 13.2% or $232 drop
$200,000 – $500,000 32.7% or $3,202 drop
$1 Million – $5 Million 42.8% or $102,625 drop
Over $5 Million 43.7% or $350,302 drop
A bigger impact would be the loss in revenue to Arizona cities and towns who have a revenue sharing agreement with the state. The average loss in city revenue is 6.4% with rural areas hurt the worst (Holbrook, for example would lose 13% of its revenue while Scottsdale would only lose 5%). In addition, some state funds come with strings so can’t be used to cover other city expenses like police, fire, parks, libraries, community centers, etc.
ACTION PLAN:
The best we can do now is to contact our AZ legislators (once again). To see that everyone wins, ask them to:
- Create a bipartisan budget that invests in our communities
- Pays down state debt
- Includes a reasonably sized tax cut
Do this even if you think they wont listen; if you’ve already done so, send a reminder. The volume of contacts makes a difference!
Here is the contact information for our Legislators:
SENATE:
LD 6 – Wendy Rogers 602-926-3042
LD 7 – Jamescita Peshlakai 602-926-3160
President Karen Fann 602-926-5874
Majority Ldr Rick Gray 602-926-5413
HOUSE:
LD 6 – Walt Blackman 602-926-3043
LD 6 – Brenda Barton 602-926-3421
LD 7 – Jasmine Blackwater-Nygren 602-926-3069
LD 7 – Myron Tsosie 602-926-3157
Speaker Russell Bowers 602-926-3128
Majority Ldr Ben Toma 602-926-3298
CONTACT THE GOVERNOR AS BILLS MOVE TO HIM TO SIGN
IT IS BEST TO CALL HIS OFFICE TO VOICE YOUR OPPOSITION – 602-542-4331.
IF YOU TWEET – SEND YOUR OPPOSITION VIA TWITTER – @DOUGDUCEY
(He hates to get Tweets it seems!!)
USE RESISTBOT as well:
- Click on “Messages” on your iphone
- Type in 504-09 and hit send
- Type in “Resist” and send
- Follow requests for information that appear
- Select the person you want to send a message to – legislator, governor, etc.
- Draft your message and hit send
- Resist bot takes care of the rest.