AZ: “We want to take advantage of the problems California is having”
On Feb. 2 Arizona House of Representatives Speaker Kirk Adams appeared on the national Hugh Hewitt radio show to discuss what Arizona is doing to create jobs.
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The takeaway line is when Rep. Adams says, “We want to take advantage of the problems California is having.”
The Arizona House has just passed sweeping tax cuts for business as described in this article from The Arizona Republic:
Hoping to boost the state’s economic recovery by spurring job creation, House Republicans on Thursday rushed through legislation that cuts taxes and creates other incentives to attract employers.
The vote came over the objections of Democrats, who complained the bill would hike property taxes on residential owners and worsen the state’s budget deficit by cutting taxes without any guarantee of new jobs.
ut House Speaker Kirk Adams, who championed House Bill 2250, said the legislation will broaden Arizona’s tax base and attract manufacturing jobs.
“It is time, it is past time, that we relied only on population growth and housing,” said Adams, R-Mesa.
The bill now heads to the Senate, where President Bob Burns, R-Peoria, said it will wait in the wings while lawmakers tackle the budget.
“It’s second priority,” Burns said of the bill, which he is co-sponsoring. “It is a priority. But our primary problem right now is our budget.”
Burns said he and legislative leaders are working toward a special session, tentatively slated to begin Monday, that would refer a temporary 1-cent sales-tax increase to the May 18 ballot. The three-day session also would include other moves to boost state revenue, such as delaying K-12 and university payments, holding another sale of state buildings to investors and authorizing a new state lottery. The state would then borrow against lottery proceeds.
The Job Recovery Act passed the House on a party line 34-25 vote. Rep. Doug Quelland, R-Phoenix, was the only Republican to break ranks and vote “no” along with the Democrats. He said the bill was too focused on business to the detriment of individual taxpayers.
The wide-ranging legislation includes $250 million in property-tax breaks through the repeal of the state equalization tax and at least $400 million in tax cuts through a 10 percent reduction in the personal income tax as well as a 14 percent cut in the corporate income tax. The reductions would be phased in over four years beginning Jan. 1.
It also contains other incentives, such as tax credits and reductions in the withholding tax, for businesses that meet certain criteria for creating jobs that pay at least a third more than the median wage in a given county. Those incentives would be paid for by the new tax money generated by the jobs.
A “deal-closing fund” would help economic-development officials provide another boost for an employer contemplating a move to Arizona.
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