Americans for Prosperity Press Release

Dear LD3 (Mohave County) 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.

Fortunately, your LD3 delegation did a good job, 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.

Happily, your LD3 delegation voted against the budget (HB2209, et al):

Sen. Ron Gould (R) rgould@azleg.gov
Rep. Trish Groe (R) tgroe@azleg.gov
Rep. Nancy McLain (R) nmclain@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.

Your LD3 Legislators voted against allowing a $250 million property tax hike (HB2220):

Sen. Ron Gould (R) rgould@azleg.gov
Rep. Trish Groe (R) tgroe@azleg.gov
Rep. Nancy McLain (R) nmclain@azleg.gov

(Reps. Groe and McLain also voted in favor of an important property tax levy limitation bill, HB2586. Unfortunately, the bill did not pass the House…)

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.

LD3 Legislators who voted in favor of the Eloy theme park scheme (SB1450) were:

Rep. Nancy McLain (R) nmclain@azleg.gov

LD3 Legislators who voted against the Eloy theme park scheme (SB1450) were:

Sen. Ron Gould (R) rgould@azleg.gov (see note)
Rep. Trish Groe (R) tgroe@azleg.gov

Special thanks to Sen. Gould, for his efforts to engage in a “silent filibuster” against the Eloy theme park bill during the Senate vote. The Senate voted to “excuse” him in order to finish the roll-call vote, which is why his vote appears as an “E” instead of an “N” in the tally on the Senate vote.

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.

LD3 Legislators who voted to allow Pima County to institute a baseball stadium tax (SB1084) were:

Rep. Nancy McLain (R) nmclain@azleg.gov

LD3 Legislators who voted against allowing Pima County to institute a baseball stadium tax (SB1084) were:

Rep. Trish Groe (R) tgroe@azleg.gov

(Thankfully, the Senate did not get a chance to vote for the bill…)

For Liberty,

--Tom

Tom Jenney
Arizona Director
Americans for Prosperity
(Arizona Federation of Taxpayers)
www.aztaxpayers.org
tjenney@afphq.org
(602) 478-0146