The gist of Gov. Jan Brewer’s address: More spending cuts, a “temporary” billion-dollar tax increase and a promised tax cut that kicks in a few years down the road.
The big question: Which taxes does she want to hike? The rumblings have been focused on a sales-tax increase, but Brewer was sketchy on the details tonight.
She served notice to the Right and the Left:
I will not sign a budget that relies on primarily on debt and federal stimulus dollars. And I will not sign a budget that relies primarily on unrealistic spending cuts.
Now she just has to find 31 representatives and 16 senators who see things her way.
This article appears in Feb 26 – Mar 4, 2009.
Consumption tax is the way to go. I almost want to pull a “Limbaugh” and wish her to fail, but I’m not that big of an ass. I’ll just have to take a little pleasure in having an “R” suggest a billion-dollar tax INCREASE.
If they just repeal the income-tax cuts from a couple of years ago–most of which went to benefit the wealthiest Arizonans (although they may considerably be less wealthy today)–and kept the property tax Republican lawmakers talking about repealing, you could be at $750 million, or three-fourths of the way there.
Of course, that won’t happen, but it does seem less regressive than a hike in the sales tax, which the state is already too dependent on. If we replace the income and property taxes with the sales tax, we’ve shifted the tax burden from the rich to the poor.
Lowering the overall sales tax and extending it to services would also be a reasonable move, but again, political reality gets in the way.
That darn reality. Gets you every time.