Friday, March 6th, 2009...4:51 pm
Business Leaders Oppose Property Tax Repeal
I rarely, if ever, agree with the Southern Arizona Leadership Council. But they have sent out a release opposing the moves to make a temporary suspension of the property tax permanent. This is from the first paragraph of their position paper:
While agreeing that Arizona’s tax policies deter business and the creation of jobs, the SALC Board of Directors believes that it is imprudent during the state’s financial crisis to permanently repeal the state equalization property tax. It is critically important to preserve the state’s infrastructure for the future, and SALC believes repealing the tax right now would do more harm than good. SALC believes that preserving the tax is only one part of a larger set of actions needed to ensure the state is prepared to be competitive in the future.
Hrm. They also call for the tax to be suspended later, which I don’t agree with, but, unlike our legislators, they seem to understand that cutting revenue when you are running out of money makes no sense. That’s what a business background will do: twist your brain around with practicalities.
Later in the release, they outline what they think state budget priorites should be:
1. Continue to the extent possible to provide basic services to ensure the health and well being of the most vulnerable among us.
2. Consider a combination of spending reductions, deferrals, debt financing, revenue enhancement and other short-term strategies to solve the budget shortfall.
3. Maintain to the extent possible investment spending in areas like education and economic development.
4. Investigate and pursue all non-state sources of assistance, such as federal stimulus spending and federal grants.
5. Base spending cuts on specific programmatic considerations.
Health? Education? Economic development? What sort of anti-American Socialism is this? Hank Amos, Jim Click, Bruce Ash, Steve Lynn, Don Pitt, Katie Dusenberry…trotskyites all!
1 Comment
March 7th, 2009 at 7:51 am
So, just to be clear. The Republican legislature is talking about reducing property taxes (favors the wealthy) while some in the legislature and the governor are talking about raising sales tax (favors the wealthy).
Now I’m starting to see the outlines of plan!