Thursday, January 31st, 2008...2:28 pm
I Don’t Get It Because I’m a Dumb Liberal
At the outset of the current budget fight, I posted that Russell Pearce’s budget proposals included an upper income tax cut as well as a property tax cut of a quarter of a billion dollars. I was mistaken, I was confused when a contact gave me some information and didn’t understand that the “upper income tax cut” that the contact refered to was one and the same as the property tax cut. I’ll be careful to have a supply of Q-Tips handy before I take a call from this guy again.
The Burns-Pearce proposal is an extension of a temporary suspension of the Equalization Tax that is applied to Arizona property owners. Under the Orwellian rhetoric adopted by supply-siders, not extending this tax break is being called a “tax increase.” Even better, Pearce and company now are terming this idea a “stimulus,” because that’s very hip this week. Given how little your average Arizona family will get out of this (some estimates say about nine bucks a month), it seems to have all the stimulative effect of a cold shot of Pepto-Bismol.
But, Pearce and his allies have said that this is beyond negotiation. Why fight so hard for something that won’t save average Arizonans all that much? Well, take a look at who the top beneficiaries are in the state, and how much money each will save:
- Arizona Public Service Co - $5,816,752
- Freeport Mines & Environmental Technology (fka: Phelps Dodge) - $3,013,553
- Salt River Project - $2,818,073
- Qwest Corporation/Qwest Communications Corp - $2,070,928
- Unisource Energy - $1,508,800
- Southwest Gas Corporation - $1,049,101
- Westcor - $657,716
- Southern California Edison - $600,579
- Banner Health - $577,096
- El Paso Natural Gas Co - $566,651
- El Paso Electric Co - 508,713
- Asarco Mines & Environmenal Techechnology - $497,448
- Target Corporation - $379,360
- Discovery Health System -$378,747
- Safeway Inc. - $373,203
- Wal-Mart Stores Inc. - $363,374
- Panda Gila River, LP - $354,438
- Mesquite Power LLC - $351,459
- BNSF Railway Company - $341,381
- Tri-State Gneration & Transmission - $317,285
So, the way to help the Arizona economy is to shovel millions to out of state investors and folks that are doing well anyway? Yeah, makes a heck of a lot of sense.
1 Comment
January 31st, 2008 at 5:31 pm
Russell Pearce is as dumb as a stump. Specifically, as dumb as the little stump that used to be his finger on his right hand that was - supposedly - shot off.
He’s a dumb person who is controlled by, and is a puppet of, the big money interests in Arizona. He ostensibly “represents” a middle to lower income class of people in Mesa. But he’s really a stooge to the out-of-state corporate interests at the Capitol.
Russell Pearce is surprisingly - even for the Republicans at the Capitol - arrogant, considering his lack of education and obviously low IQ level and reading comprehension.
I was once lectured to by that rube on constitutional law…and I am a civil rights lawyer. Russell Pearce thinks he knows everything about everything. Normally, he thinks he’s an expert on constitutional law. Now, apparently he thinks he’s an economist.
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