Four billion dollars more in Arizona’s state coffers would go a long way. I made the radical proposal the other day that we should add a billion dollars to our education budget to take us out of 49th place in per student funding and catapult us all the way up to 46th place, tied with Tennessee. We’d move from the bottom 4 percent in the nation all the way up to the bottom 10 percent. If we had that extra four billion in our state budget, we could add that billion and still have three billion left over for other vital state needs. Better roads and bridges, anyone? More money to give defenseless children the help they sorely need?
You might ask, “Where does Arizona come up with a king’s ransom like four billion dollars?” The answer according to ASU’s W.P. Carey School of Business is, we’d have that in our coffers this year and every year from now on if we hadn’t been cutting taxes for the past two decades.
Arizonans paid 30 percent less in general-fund taxes in 2015 than they did in 1992, according to the analysis by economists Dennis Hoffman and Tom Rex.
Let’s take a moment to absorb that. No, Arizonans aren’t being taxed within an inch of our lives. If we kept the same tax rates we had in 1992, our overall taxes would be higher, and the state would be able to meet its obligations to its citizens and stay within its budget rather than crying poor and cutting back on vital services.
Arizonans want more money for education, and a majority of them have even said they’d be willing to pay higher taxes to help foot the bill. I’m happy to hear that, but really, the majority of Arizonans don’t have to shoulder the burden to increase tax revenues. The pain shouldn’t be absorbed by people who are struggling to rub a nickel and a dime together. Our corporate income tax is low, 34th in the nation, and the Republican legislature voted to lower it further. Meanwhile, our regressive sales taxes are high. The rich pay a third of what the poor pay in state and local taxes as a percentage of their incomes. Those who are paying the least are those who can best afford it. They need to pay their fair share.
Does it sound like I’m waging class warfare here? Hardly. The weaponry is in the hands of those who benefit most from our increasing income inequality and from lower tax rates on the wealthy. They have the personal connections and the lobbyists. They have the money to reward office holders with large campaign contributions, direct contributions made in the light of day and hidden contributions made in the “dark money” of night. While they can give their families everything they need even as the state cuts back on spending, people who depend on government services—like public education and services for children, to name two things that are shamefully underfunded in Arizona—are being hurt, badly.
In the last Republican debate, Donald Trump said, “Right now, we’re the highest taxed country in the world.” I’m sure plenty of listeners shook their heads in sad agreement, and no one who shared the stage with Trump dared to disagree. But anyone who knows the numbers understands the whole crew of Republican presidential candidates are wrong on taxes. An AP fact check of the debates confirms what we already know, that our taxes are low compared to other countries with similar economic standing. And here in Arizona, we’re not even paying anywhere near the highest taxes we’ve paid in the past few decades.
This article appears in Feb 4-10, 2016.
I would rather see the roads repaired and the money returned to the wage earners to get our economy moving again. Taxes are higher than they need to be. Spending is the problem.
We are $19T in debt on the federal side. We know better than to keep spending.
Increase state taxes and then increase tax credits for private schools. We are wasting money on the failed public school system.
@David W The public school system has been drowned in small government ideology, thus creating the imagined failure. Thank god for dedicated teachers.
Sorry but it isn’t small government theology that can’t read, write, add or subtract. It’s our public school students.
Comrade Safier wants you to PAY PAY PAY. But no accountability at any turn.
Trump 2016.
“Those who are paying the least are those who can best afford it. They need to pay their fair share.” This is so tiresome. Translated, it means: “We should take more of someone else’s money to pay for stuff I want.”
A fundamental problem with the “fair share” argument is that a majority of the people vote to determine what a (relatively) small minority of people’s “fair” share is, but they never have to pay that “share” themselves.
@David W Our public schools are not failing. That is what the corporate reformers would have you believe the the facts are that scores on the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) have been improving steadily since 2003. Fall for the “hater” rhetoric if you want, but the real problem is that our educational professionals are being stretched ever thinner to try and make up for the lack of funding our districts receive. As for @Old Pueblo Veteran, you want accountability? Don’t look to the for-profit charter school and private school industry because you won’t find it there.
Increase taxes on hard working Americans to fill the seats with Grijalva illegals?
$350,000,000 stolen from Arizona property taxpayers every year to fund the Grijalva’s radical chicano indoctrination centers.
Safier: How much extra do you pay in taxes?
I wonder how many of the commenters above would pass a comprehension test on Safier’s article. The ‘fire away, no cost to comment/criticize’ mentality seems to lead some among us to ignore the facts and promulgate their pet peeves. I believe Safier is saying that Arizona could afford to spend more on legitimate government purposes had we not continually lowered taxes over the past 24 years, and done so in such a way as to shift the tax burden (such as it is) from the well-to-do to the less affluent.
Mr Safier’s article immediately loses credibility when he leads with the straw man that “Arizonans aren’t being taxed within an inch of our lives” But disregarding his blustering, both he and the ASU report fail to understand is that Arizona is a relatively poor state that has experienced tremendous growth with lopsided demographics.
Arizona is near the bottom (46th) in Per Capita Income Per Student and GDP per capita (40th). Arizona also has one of the lowest populations of adults between 18 and 64 (49th). These factors will always keep Arizona in the bottom of national K-12 spending ranks, no matter how much you tax the people. In fact it has been estimated that Arizona could raise personal income taxes by 50% and add a cent to the sales tax and even directing all that money to K-12, Arizona would still not crack the top 30 of per pupil spending.
Here is the ASU study for those interested.
https://wpcarey.asu.edu/sites/default/files/uploads/center-competitiveness-and-prosperity-research/govtfin07-15.pdf
Sorry frankly but there is no tax burden on the less affluent. They are given the EITC on the federal returns which actually rewards them with cash, while the successful are punished on everything from utilities to auto registration fees. And the term “fair share” has been created by Democrats as a way to promise more freebies for the rest. Taxes do not discriminate. While they are necessary in some forms, more does not equate to better.
I only have to think about the VA budget and look at the disaster they have become to see the problem. The state is simply a microcosm of the the fed.
Thanks Cynthia. If we followed their theology we should tax the other 49 states to pay for our education just to make sure they paid their fair share. Or better yet maybe just the the 45 that are “better” than us.
Google is your friend:
http://blogs.edweek.org/edweek/education_futures/2015/08/10_reasons_the_us_education_system_is_failing.html
Yeah, I don’t remember feeling overtaxed in 1992. Now I may have a few more bucks in my pocket but the roads are full of potholes and our schools are embarrassingly underfunded. What good does that few hundred bucks do when I can hardly drive on the roads?
Its priority people. Republicans don’t believe in educated people. They prefer people they can dicate too, people who believe all the lies they tell. We need smarter people in Phoenix running this state, not those with special interests and big payments for flavors. Some day, the people of Arizona will wake up. Also why do the Republicans continue to lobby against bottle and can returns. That would save millions in trash pickups.
Why isn’t gas tax increased? Why Republicans. We need lots of roadwork, rail and bridge work repairs. Congress passes bill to do these repairs, but DO appropriate any money.
Because gas taxes don’t go to roads. They fund butterfly studies with gas taxes, and windmills with auto registration fees. You knew that, now stop it.
Tucson bought more open space land and built soccer fields to try to pay for the baseball stadium boondoggle. Nothing is at it appears.
I know it’s easy and even enjoyable sometimes to hum along to the current popular ideology in the state. No taxes sounds awesome.
However. Wouldn’t it be a good idea – some might call it a conservative approach – to actually pause to examine the costs we have incurred from the tax cuts so far? And shouldn’t we be looking at other communities who have privatized services and enacted similar stark tax reductions to see how things turned out?
From a business perspective, I wouldn’t just lay off half the staff one year because I thought payroll was too high and knew that I’d profit more in the short term. Things tend to go poorly when long-term consequences aren’t considered.
While I understand the sentiment in the posts above, I would hope that the folks keening for more and more and more of the same dose of E-Z government slash & burn we have seen in the past decade will at least consider taking a time out to do a little research. And please do update me if you find an example where our current formula has worked in other places…because I have yet to find evidence that makes me optimistic.
Notice no mention of property taxes. Those rich people pay a significantly larger portion of property taxes. This article fails to mention what they define as rich? In Pima County, we have the opposite problem. EVERYTHING is put on the home owner. That’s why I pay almost triple what a similar home owner pays in Maricopa County. I’m one of those people who will pay more taxes for schools, but I sure as heck won’t pay more to fund someone else’s welfare. My wife’s co-worker is getting $11,000 back on her federal return and she receives every type of welfare you can. She qualifies by not marrying the father of her baby and she brags about how she is gaming the system at work. Pathetic. I thought these were just made up stories until this woman came along.
But the Republican one party dictatorship in this State can give our massive tax credits for “donations” to private school accounts, and public tax vouchers for private school attendance, without any accountability for performance or quality of instruction, meanwhile, real public schools must take everyone regardless of ability, and are massively accountable.
No accountability is exactly what spent us into the mess in the first place. You can’t have an unlimited amount of money and monopolize one segment of the education market place.
Americans want and deserve choice for their children.
I am not from Arizona but I am strongly considering moving there. The reason to move to Arizona is its low taxes and affordability. I am looking to leave a tax and spend state in the Northeast for a much less progressive state.
Before saying lowering taxes is a bad thing please look at the states like mine who have the highest state taxes. These states have some of the highest unemployment and have seen real wages decline the most and some like mine are even seeing their populations decrease.
It is funny because another reason for choosing Arizona is the education. There are two top 20 Hofh Schools in the nation in Arizona and many many highly regarded school districts. It seems like the magnet program works well for those student who do well and whose parents care enough to get their children into those magnet schools. Otis not about spending the most but about spending wisely. Spend on those who care and work hard.
Please, please do not follow the lead of having higher taxes. I look around me every day and see more and more businesses leaving a once great state. If you want higher taxes and more money to be spent on education come here to Connecticut. Come to a working class city like Waterbury. Drive down any major street and you will see many businesses that no longer exist and have left the area. Go to a fancy town like Fairfield and ask about the real reason why GE is leaving the state?
Please, Please try to attract new business and new tax paying residents. The easiest way to do that is with lower taxes.