The Arizona Chamber’s guide to the ballot propositions
October 18, 2012Glenn Hamer
With less than three weeks
remaining before the 2012 General Election, many Arizonans are getting ready to
put their early ballots in the mail. Before you fill in those boxes with ink
and head to the post office, please take a moment to review the Arizona Chamber
of Commerce and Industry’s recommendations on statewide propositions.
The Chamber has weighed in on
five ballot measures, taking a position of support on four and opposing
one.
Here’s a brief look at each of
our positions:
Proposition 116 – Property
Tax Exemptions - Support
The Arizona Chamber joins the
Arizona chapter of the National Federation of Independent Business in
supporting Proposition 116, which will help small businesses grow and create
jobs by reducing the tax burden on their equipment and machinery. A tax on the
value of equipment and machinery increases the fixed cost of operating a
business in Arizona and creates a disincentive to new investment. Proposition
116 would exempt the value of equipment and machinery equal up to the wages of
50 Arizona workers (now about $2.4 million), making it more likely Arizona
businesses will hire new employees and purchase necessary equipment.
Proposition 117 – Property
Tax Assessed Valuation - Support
As our friends at the Arizona Tax
Research Association have pointed out for years, our state’s property tax
system is overly complicated, with two valuations: full cash value and limited
property value. Under Proposition 117, the annual growth of the limited
property value would be limited to five percent, and it wouldn’t exceed the
full cash value. Also, the limited property value would be the only taxable
value, helping to deliver a much greater level of predictability and stability
in Arizona’s property tax system.
Proposition 118 –
Establishment of Permanent Funds - Support
Passage of Proposition 118 will
restructure the distribution formula for the Permanent Land Endowment Fund,
whose largest beneficiary is K-12 education. Currently, in some years the
formula distributes tens of millions of dollars; in other years zero.
This reform will smooth out the distribution so that there is some
allocation to education every year. The result will bring about reliable
and consistent K-12 education funding with no new taxes and no new spending
from the General Fund. Arizona Treasurer Doug Ducey deserves applause for
crafting this reform.
Proposition 119 – State
Trust Lands – Support
Proposition 119 will help prevent
incompatible land use that could put at risk the jobs associated with military
bases. Arizona’s military installations contribute over $9 billion in economic
output. Proposition 119, whose supporters include Land Commissioner Maria Baier
and Greater Phoenix Leadership, will help ensure they are able to complete
their critical missions and remain an integral part of Arizona’s economy for
decades to come.
Proposition 204 – Permanent
Sales Tax Increase – Oppose
The Chamber recognizes that a
high-performing education system requires the financial resources necessary to
produce a highly qualified workforce. To that end, the Chamber strongly
supported Proposition 100 in 2010, which established a temporary one cent per
dollar sales tax, and over 10 years ago our organization supported Proposition
301. We also supported new funding this past year at the Legislature to fund
Move on When Reading, a proven reform targeted at ensuring that students exit
the third grade with the ability to read. Going forward we will support efforts
to properly implement the Common Core standards, which is a state-led effort to
increase educational standards so America's students can compete with the best
and brightest students from around the world.
Unfortunately, this new $1
billion a year permanent tax would leave Arizona with the second highest sales
tax rate in the country -- leaving a number of cities with a combined rate over
10 percent. It would make future efforts to reform our sales tax code and help
to create jobs much more difficult. Not surprisingly, many chambers and
prominent business groups oppose this effort including the Greater Phoenix
Chamber of Commerce, NFIB, the Arizona Small Business Association, the Tucson
Hispanic Chamber of Commerce and the East Valley Chambers Alliance. The
education reform aspects are basically non-existent and simply not worth the
risk to our state's economy. Arguably two of the most prominent education
reform advocate in the state, Dr. Craig Barrett and former State Superintendent
of Public Instruction Jaime Molera have come out in opposition to Prop. 204.
The Arizona Republic wrote a thoughtful piece opposing Prop. 204 as well. We strongly
urge a no vote
on Proposition 204.
We believe that by following the Arizona Chamber’s recommendations on these important ballot measures that Arizona voters will be casting a vote in favor of growing jobs and increasing our state’s economic competitiveness. For more information on these items and candidate races, be sure to check out the Arizona Prosperity Project’s website, a convenient tool to learn more about the big issues in this election.
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