The House Ways and Means Committee passed HB2522 today. This is the revenue-neutral tax conformity bill, which would give the richest Arizonans a tax cut.
The Democrats stood strong and said that we should not give a tax cut when there are so many needs in our country. Also we must look at investment for the future rather than giving away money today. Our rainy day fund is underfunded. If Wall Street crashes the economy again, Arizona will face more devastating cuts, when we haven’t recovered fully from the last cuts.
This bill and the mirror bill SB 1143 need a 2/3 majority due to the emergency enactment clause, since we waited until the last minute to act on tax conformity. It will be difficult to get these out of the Senate or the House. Democrats need to stand strong on this.
Thanks to everyone who signed in on the Request to Speak System. The record shows that more people want full tax conformity — not tax cuts for the rich.