You may have seen the article in today’s Star written by an AZ Republic reporter, Report ranks Arizona better than average for tax policies. According to the article, Arizona is number 21 in the national rankings. Not bad. In fact, that sounds like the kind of thing Governor Ducey might brag about. But the ranking is in a report from the Tax Foundation, meaning it ranks Arizona 21st in the nation for its business-friendly tax policies. As for everyone else, we’ll just have to hope some of that business friendliness trickles its way down to us, though the reality is, the decades-long trend toward ever-lower taxes for businesses and the rich has sent the nation’s wealth galloping upward, creating income inequality like we haven’t seen since the Gilded Age.
The Republic article fails to mention the name of the Tax Foundation report is, 2017 State Business Tax Climate Index.
The Tax Foundation is a conservative group which advocates for lower taxes, especially for business. Of its four founding members in 1937, two were the chairman and financial vice president of General Motors, and a third was the president of Standard Oil. The group gets Koch Brothers funding through the brothers’ labyrinthine network of organizations which launder money by tossing it back and forth until its origin is obscured. It makes sure to air its opinion at ALEC (American Legislative Exchange Council) meetings. In 2011, the Tax Foundation’s president spoke to ALEC’s Tax and Fiscal Policy Task Force about corporate taxes and international competitiveness, and one of its vice presidents introduced a “Resolution Urging Congress to Cut the Federal Corporate Tax Rate.”
Let’s break down Arizona’s tax rating to see why the Foundation thinks we’re above average. The state ranks high—meaning we tax low—when it comes to corporate and income taxes. We’re 19th in the nation on both. Our property tax ranking is even better. We’re at number 6. We rank 13th in unemployment insurance, meaning we’re the 13th friendliest to businesses in that category. For workers who need unemployment insurance, that’s not such a good thing.
Where Arizona’s ranking with the Foundation tanks is in the area of sales tax. We’re 47th in that category, meaning our sales tax rates are far too high for the Foundation’s liking. It’s not really the tax cutters’ fault, though. To lower business and income taxes, our conservative legislature has shifted the burden to the most regressive of all taxes, the sales tax.
A more liberal-leaning group, the Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy, has a different take on Arizona’s tax structure. It comes close to agreeing with the Tax Foundation on the ranking of Arizona’s combined state and local taxes. ITEP has us the 35th highest, the same as being the 15th lowest—which is in the same relative ballpark as the Tax Foundation’s 21st place ranking. But then, instead of focusing on how friendly the tax structure is for business, ITEP looks at how unfriendly it is for the poorest 20% of tax payers. We rank at the fifth worst in the nation in terms of the burden on our lowest income citizens.
[T]he poorest 20 percent of Arizona residents pay significantly more of their income (12.9 percent) in state and local taxes than any other group in the state. For low-income families, Arizona is far from being a low tax state. In fact, only four states tax their poorest residents more heavily than Arizona.
According to ITEP, while the bottom 20 percent pays 12.9 percent of its income on state and local taxes, the top 1 percent pays only 4.7 percent. In a progressive tax world, people in the top income brackets would pay a larger percentage of their income on taxes than those who are barely scraping by. Not so in regressive Arizona.
To which the folks at the Tax Foundation would say, “All right! That’s what we’re talking about!”
This article appears in Sep 29 – Oct 5, 2016.
Always so negative? Just look at how the Soros money flows to some of these outfits:
http://www.discoverthenetworks.org/
Sorry david but you are wrong. What, again? Sharon bronson proposed raising our sales tax yet agin, so that we could enjoy lower property taxes.
What idiot is going to fall for that? And if you were a real Arizonan you would know that Bruce BbbbbbBabbit raised the sales tax 30 years ago, by telling us it was a temporary increase. And then they raised them again. All without Republican help.
Get rid of these liars and lets go flat 17% Federal tax on income, 3% Az State tax and no sales tax. No deductions. Everybody in.
Then let’s see who they vote for.
Nobody like taxes except the politicians. No matter how much money comes in, they alays figure a way to spend it, wrongly.
Corporate income tax? The rate means nothing. Almost no businesses pay the rack rate. Trump proves that Congress has carved out so many exemptions, deductions and special breaks, many businesses can write off almost everything, and in Trump’s case years of paying nothing–on other people’s money. Every time I hear some person whine about their Arizona property taxes, I laugh hysterically considering how low they are in Arizona. Then we have the “genius” businessman governor, who essentially extorted his franchise holders, wanting to lower taxes more, or shift them to the poor, which is OK with his ALEC/Goldwater masters. Except he will find lots of money to subsidize someone’s private school tuition with taxpayer money, with Sonny “the Italian Stallion” Borelli, leading the band.
You want to start tax reform in Arizona? Start with page 18 in the Arizona resident personal income tax booklet. 32 income tax credits, from soup (credit for solar hot water heater plumbing stub outs) to nuts (agricultural water conservation credit). The most obscene being the credits for “donations” to private school tuition organizations by both individuals, S corporations and other corporations. How many Arizona legislators make their money from these groups? Need a way to get more money to schools? “Suspend” these credits!
Said like a true union, public school hack. Competition makes us better. Try competing.
“Get Whitey, make him pay!”
The infamous troll strikes again.
But, as usual, that POS is Wrong, Again.
I don’t understand why TW puts up with the nonsense posted by this fool. If I were in charge, the posts that this hack spews upon us would automatically be erased.
The words “Common” and “Sense” are NOT part of this troll’s vocabulary.
Like Terrence said to Scott, “You’re a dick.”
(In case you don’t understand the reference, Wrong, Again is Scott.)
Such an informative post AZ/DC. Want to add something substantial to refute the points made in the article?
He/she never does. Just insults others.
Debbi L:
I don’t JUST insult others. I’ve given plenty of praise to those who deserve it or who have earned it. Wrong, Again is definitely NOT one of those posters.
A shitload of posts done by those who disagree with the gist of these articles are full of that insulting nonsense. Yet, when the same kind of behaviour is thrown back at the average conservative know-nothing troll, they usually get uber defensive, as does their ilk. (I’ll bet that your eyes/ears are on fire right now!) Go ahead and view my posts, you’ll notice that I never start anything unless provoked by a bullshit attitude. I’d love to view all of your posts, but you haven’t bothered to establish an account. Take the initiative to learn something, you know…instead of just blowing off unjustified steam.
P.S. Beckman, I wasn’t necessarily attempting to be informative. I was responding to the nastiest troll on this site, the always uninformative and unoriginal Wrong, Again. My post may not have made a lot of sense to you because Wrong, Again’s post was removed between our posts. Believe me, you would agree that there was a good reason as for which it was removed, unless you are actually as unintelligent as Wrong, Again.
Sorry gekoman, I didn’t mean to butcher your online handle in my previous post.
Autocorrect is a bitch that needs to be slapped…Hard!