Arizona Contractors Oppose GOP Lawsuit Against Sales Tax They Stand To Benefit From

Arizona Contractors Oppose GOP Lawsuit Against Sales Tax They Stand To Benefit From

By Staff Reporter |

Arizona’s unified organization of general contractors are in opposition to a lawsuit by local Republican Party leaders over the voter-approved sales tax that, ultimately, benefits them. 

The Arizona Chapter of the Associated General Contractors of America (AZAGC) said in a press release that the latest lawsuit from the Maricopa County Republican Committee (MCRC) challenging the passage of Proposition 479 was a “frivolous” action undertaken by “disgruntled partisans.” 

Prop 479 continued an existing .05 cent sales tax, revenues which fund Maricopa County’s infrastructure and, naturally, the general contractors that build it. MCRC filed suit on Monday in the Maricopa County Superior Court. 

MCRC argued against the claim that Prop 479 amounts to a mere continuation of the state’s decades-old sales tax. In their lawsuit, MCRC argued that the proposition instills a new tax for new projects. What’s more, the committee argued that the proposition didn’t pass the 60 percent voter threshold needed for a new tax.

The measure gained 59.82 percent of the vote (out of two million voters); the measure was approved with 80 percent turnout. 

Voters first established the half-cent tax in 1985 and last renewed it in 2004. The tax extends through 2045 under the proposition, which established a 20-year continuation. Maricopa County Association of Governments (MAG) estimated generated revenues to amount to $15 billion under 2020 dollars.

40 percent of the sales tax revenues go to freeways and highways, 22 percent go to arterial roads and regional transportation infrastructure, and 37 percent go to transit. 

MAG further estimated that funds generated under the tax would allow for infrastructure that would keep the average commute length at 30 minutes through 2050, even after adding 1.7 million residents and 900,000 jobs. 

Prop 479’s investment plan concerns reducing the average afternoon commute by one-third and reducing congestion by 51,000 hours on critical freight corridors daily. It also concerns increasing the number of amenities within a 30-minute drive by 12 percent, creating $2.4 billion in net new economic activity per year, saving local businesses $1.6 billion per year in travel time savings, and creating and supporting 31,600 jobs annually.

AZAGC President David Martin predicted the courts would dismiss the lawsuit before it gained any ground, but not soon enough to mitigate the damages of unnecessary costs to taxpayers. Martin avoided mention of the fiscal opportunities that contractors stand to make with the success of Prop 479. 

“It’s clear this frivolous lawsuit has no merit and will eventually be thrown out by the courts” said Martin. “It’s hypocritical that these ‘conservatives’ insist on having tax dollars wasted defending a lawsuit that clearly will not stand up in the courts.

AZAGC claimed in its press release that the .05 cent sales tax is necessary because all benefit from county infrastructure, including MCRC members. 

“The roads in Maricopa County are funded by the ½ cent sales tax as well as other taxes. Members of the MCRC use these roads to get to and from work, take their kids to school and go to the grocery store,” said the press release. “Instead of paying their fair share for public streets, members of the MCRC would rather have drivers stuck in traffic away from their families and pay exorbitant maintenance costs for damage caused by potholes.”

Among those siding with AZAGC were top Democratic leaders like Phoenix Mayor Kate Gallego. The mayor also issued a statement on the matter, adopting similar language to AZAGC in denouncing the MCRC lawsuit as “malignant,” “deeply flawed,” and “misguided.”

“Maricopa County voters overwhelmingly passed Prop 479 because they understand that a strong transportation system isn’t political—it’s critical to our future,” said Gallego.

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Arizona Department Of Health Calls For Removal Of Guns From Family Homes

Arizona Department Of Health Calls For Removal Of Guns From Family Homes

By Staff Reporter |

The Arizona Department of Health Services (AZDHS) called for the removal of guns from all homes with children.

AZDHS made the recommendation for family homes to have their firearms removed in their latest Arizona Child Fatality Review Program (CFRP) report, released last month. This annual report is submitted to the governor and leaders of both the House and Senate for the purpose of guiding policy and even influencing state intervention. 

“CFRP believes that the most effective way to prevent firearm-related deaths in children is to remove all firearms in households with children because the presence of firearms in a household increases the risk of suicide among adolescents,” stated the opening letter of the report. “Parents of all adolescents should remove all guns from their homes, especially if there is a history of mental health issues or substance use issues. In addition, CFRP recommends that all gun owners should practice safe storage of their firearms by keeping guns unloaded and locked in a safe separate from the ammunition.”

The report recommended that the state should require mental health screening and gun safety training as prerequisites to purchasing firearms, license and track all firearms, and punish people for failing to report stolen firearms. 

The report also recommended that policy makers, participating agencies, and schools launch public awareness campaigns advising the removal of all firearms from their households.

According to that report, nearly 70 minors died from preventable firearm injuries last year. Of those deaths, 44 percent (30 deaths) were suicides. 75 percent occurred in children ages 15-17 years, and 84 percent of firearm injury deaths were among males. 

The leading risk factors of firearm injury deaths were: access to firearms (60 percent), CPS history with the family (59 percent), substance use (56 percent), history of violence or trauma (46 percent), and an unlocked firearm (40 percent). 

Firearms were not the leading cause of preventable deaths for Arizona minors. 

The top leading cause of preventable deaths among minors occurred from motor vehicle crashes (81 deaths, 20 percent), followed by firearm injury (68 deaths, 16 percent), then suffocation (52 deaths, 13 percent), poisoning (34 deaths, eight percent), and drowning (31 deaths, seven percent). 

Founding member and chairwoman Mary Rimsza authored the opening letter which recommended the total removal of guns from homes with children, and the unloading and locking up of guns in all other homes.

Rimsza is a pediatrician, fellow of the American Academy of Pediatrics, professor of pediatrics at Mayo Graduate School of Medicine, and research professor of Health Management and Policy at Arizona State University.

Rimsza advocated for mandatory masking and vaccinations throughout the COVID-19 pandemic in the media while serving as the advocacy committee chair for the Arizona chapter of the American Academy of Pediatrics.

According to her X profile, Rimsza has also advocated for eating less meat and indicated her support for Democrats across the board, expressing avid support for Joe Biden’s presidential candidacy and opposition to the reelection of Donald Trump in 2020. 

In a separate X profile, Rimsza shared a statement from the American Academy of Pediatrics claiming that racism impacts the physical health of children. 

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ASU President Critical Of Department Of Education Amid Talks Of Its Dissolution

ASU President Critical Of Department Of Education Amid Talks Of Its Dissolution

By Staff Reporter |

Arizona State University (ASU) President Michael Crow may not be in outright support of President Donald Trump’s plan to end the Department of Education (ED), but he does seem to favor the idea of reform at the very least.

In Politico coverage gauging university presidents’ sentiments toward another Trump administration, Crow voiced a desire for an ED overhaul. Crow made the remarks during the annual Higher Education-News Media Dinner-Discussion at the University of Pennsylvania Club of New York City (Penn Club), which he hosted. 

Crow said that ED student loans largely prove to be a waste of taxpayer dollars, since a majority of recipients don’t graduate.

“The Department of Education is a mismatch of bank feeds that have been cobbled together over 50 years of congressional history or more,” said Crow. “If you look at the United States and our success, we have almost three quarters of a trillion dollars being spent on Pell Grants in the last few decades, and more than half of those individuals have never graduated from college.”

Crow went on to say that the federal student loans weren’t having their intended effects — more citizens with a higher education that, in all likelihood, would strengthen the economy, depress poverty, spur innovation, and raise the education level (and welfare) of subsequent generations — since most borrowers weren’t getting their degrees.  

“Most of the people that have loans supported by the government of the United States have no diplomas, no certificates, no degrees of any kind,” said Crow. “Clearly, something is not yet perfected and so what we need is new designs, new models, new ways of doing things.”

Trump vowed to abolish ED in a campaign promise made last year. The proposal was released as part of his “Agenda47” platform outlining his plan for his second and nonconsecutive term. 

In his campaign promise, Trump said he would revert education authority and responsibilities to the states entirely. The president-elect explained the low education outcomes weren’t worth the high rates of federal spending and bureaucracy.

“And one other thing I’ll be doing very early in the administration is closing up the Department of Education in Washington D.C. and sending all education and education work and needs back to the States. We want them to run the education of our children, because they’ll do a much better job of it. You can’t do worse. We spend more money per pupil, by three times, than any other nation. And yet we’re absolutely at the bottom. We’re one of the worst. So you can’t do worse. We’re going to end education coming out of Washington D.C. We’re going to close it up — all those buildings all over the place and yet people that in many cases hate our children. We’re going to send it all back to the States.”

Under the late Democratic president Jimmy Carter, the U.S. founded the ED in 1980 through legislation splitting the Department of Health, Education, and Welfare into two: ED, and the Department of Health and Human Services. 

ED received about four percent of the fiscal year 2024 budget, and its budget sits at around $240 billion. ED provides over $150 billion in new and consolidated loans annually. 

ED has the smallest staff of the 15 Cabinet agencies, consisting of about 4,400 employees. 

Those employees are split among 17 offices within the department: Federal Student Aid; Institute of Education Services; Office of the Chief Information Officer; Office of Communications and Outreach; Office for Civil Rights; Office of Career, Technical, and Adult Education; Office of the Deputy Secretary; Office of English Language Acquisition; Office of Elementary and Secondary Education; Office of Finance and Operations; Office of the General Counsel; Office of Legislation and Congressional Affairs; Office of Postsecondary Education; Office of Planning, Evaluation and Policy Development; Office of the Secretary; Office of Special Education and Rehabilitative Services; and Office of the Under Secretary. 

South Dakota Senator Mike Rounds introduced a bill to abolish ED, the Returning Education to Our States Act. The bill proposed to shift certain programs to other departments.

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