Why the Flat Tax will Hurt Our District
Brace yourselves — your state lawmakers want to make tough times even tougher by raising your family’s taxes while giving the rich their very own tax cut.
Can times in southern Arizona even get any tougher?
Just ask Sen. Gail Griffin, Reps. Peggy Judd and David Stevens. These three Republican lawmakers from District 25, and their special-interest friends in the legislature, want to reintroduce next year a “flat tax,” which would increase our taxes.
That means 88 percent of us would pay higher taxes while 12 percent (the rich) would pay less.
In their flat tax, Arizona families who make less than $100,000 would have a tax increase of at least 10 percent. Impoverished families who make under $10,000 would have a tax increase of a whopping 20,000 percent. In other words, those who make the least get hit with the biggest tax increase.
But it gets even worse. Griffin, Judd and Stevens want to shell out a 45 percent tax break to the richest Arizonans with incomes of more than $5 million.
For every one person paying less in taxes, eight Arizonans will be paying more. Their motives are simple: tax the middle-class and make the rich even richer.
Their flat tax scheme to make the rich even richer, makes it even harder for significant families in our communities.
For starters, there would be no exemptions for:
- The blind.
- People older than 65
- Dependents
- Veterans
- Personal exemptions (i.e. no mortgage, medical, or charitable deductions)
Their “flat tax” also would eliminate:
- Church donations
- Medical Deductions (Medical and prescription bills, Medicare premiums, dentists, hearing aids, long-term care insurance and travel to doctors for rural citizens)
- Military pay exemption
- Mortgage Interest deduction (reducing incentives for home buyers)
- The first $2500 tax deduction for pensions
- Donations to Non-Profits (Community Food Bank, working poor, blind, etc.)
This year Judd co-sponsored HB2636, “flat income tax,” and she and Stevens voted to pass this bill in the state House of Representatives. Fortunately, and surprisingly, this HB2636 was held in the Senate. But they want to try to pass the bill again next year, and if successful, they could be increasing your state income taxes.
As southern Arizonans, we understand that rural, middle-class families, and small businesses are the backbone of our state. We work the land, teach in schools and fight for our country. We are the ones who till the soil of our economy and make it rich. Without middle-class families, Arizona’s economy will continue to tank.
And in Sierra Vista and District 25, we know what that’s like: state parks and small businesses close, schools and teachers disappear and our job market gets hit the hardest.
Making us pay more in taxes via a flat tax won’t create jobs because our families will be staying at home, saving up every dime they can to care for their kids instead of taking them to a small business to buy frozen yogurt or going to Tombstone to visit a state park.
Rich CEOs will be doing the same thing – pocketing their tax break instead of creating jobs.
It’s time the rich pay their fair share, finally start creating jobs and get our economy back on track. These representatives’ flat tax will just make our struggling rural economy struggle more.