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Arizonans face a steep tax increase under a plan being pushed by so-called conservative Kelli Ward, the chairwoman of the Arizona Republican Party.

Senate Concurrent Resolution 1001 and House Concurrent Resolution 2024, if approved by the legislature, would ask voters to approve a permanent one cent sales tax increase. This would result in Arizona taxpayers permanently paying a sales tax rate that is about 7 percent higher than what is paid today.

“Kelli Ward promised the people of Arizona in writing that she would oppose any and all tax increases. She just called for a sales tax hike that would damage every citizen of Arizona,” said Grover Norquist, President of Americans for Tax Reform.

Kelli Ward signed the Taxpayer Protection Pledge in her primary challenge to Senator John McCain, making a written commitment Arizonans that she would oppose tax increases.

Why is she now taking the opposite position as Chairwoman and supporting a massive tax increase that would inflict a great deal of harm on the individual taxpayers, families, and employers across the Grand Canyon State?

 

Americans for Tax Reform warned Arizona lawmakers of these negative consequences in the following letter: 

 

Dear Representative,

On behalf of Americans for Tax Reform (ATR) and our supporters across Arizona, I urge you to reject Senate Concurrent Resolution 1001 and its companion, House Concurrent Resolution 2024, which would ask voters to approve a permanent $1.2 billion sales tax increase. If implemented, this massive tax hike would inflict a great deal of harm on hardworking individual taxpayers, families, and employers across the Grand Canyon State.

There is a wealth of social science demonstrating the economic harm that results from raising taxes. John Hood, chairman of the John Locke Foundation, a Raleigh, N.C.-based think tank, surveyed over 680 peer-reviewed academic journal articles on fiscal policy published over the past quarter century. According to Hood, “the preponderance of peer-reviewed research finds a negative relationship between state taxes and measures such as job creation and income growth.”

Tax Foundation economist William McBride reviewed academic literature going back three decades and found, “while there are a variety of methods and data sources, the results consistently point to significant negative effects of taxes on economic growth even after controlling for various other factors such as government spending, business cycle conditions and monetary policy.”

In addition to being bad policy, tax increases are also bad politics. An ATR analysis of recent election results finds that voters in both red and blue states overwhelmingly rejected tax increases at the ballot. Election outcomes are the most accurate polls available, and they show that the public is opposed to tax increases. 

Arizona is currently experiencing a $1 billion surplus. Rather than searching for new ways separate your constituents from more of their income, lawmakers should use existing revenue more efficiently.

ATR opposes SCR 1001 and HCR 2024 and urges lawmakers to vote NO. Voting YES would be scored as a violation of the Taxpayer Protection Pledge. 

Sincerely,

Grover Norquist

President

Americans for Tax Reform