by Daniel Stefanski | Dec 8, 2024 | News
By Daniel Stefanski |
A trio of Arizona agencies accomplished justice for local victims of organized crime.
Earlier this month, officials with the Arizona Department of Public Safety along with Maricopa County Attorney Rachel Mitchell held a press conference to announce the arrests of four people who were connected to a string of vehicle thefts in Maricopa County.
“These vehicles were transported into Mexico to continue the efforts and further goals of transnational criminal organizations. And in this case a total of 22 high-end vehicles were recovered with an estimated worth of 1.4 million dollars due to the great work of our vehicle theft task force detectives,” said Deputy Director of the Arizona Department of Public Safety Lt. Col. Ken Hunter.
County Attorney Mitchell thanked her law enforcement partners at the state department and Maricopa County Sheriff’s Office. She added, “And let me be very clear, my office will not tolerate enterprises that target the hardworking people of Maricopa County. We are committed to pursuing justice and holding those who engage in organized crime accountable for their actions.”
The law enforcement officials revealed in their press conference that the stolen vehicles were taken from the Phoenix-metro region to the U.S.-Mexico border. Mitchell shared that each of the individuals indicted are facing a dozen charges of means of transportation, among other felony counts that were included by the grand jury.
Mitchell has been extremely proactive during her tenure as Maricopa County’s top prosecutor in helping to enforce the law against any and all organized retail theft rings operating within her jurisdiction. She faced a competitive general election this past fall yet emerged victorious over her Democrat opponent to secure her first full term in office. After her race was called, Mitchell stated, “I want to assure you that I will continue to fight against any efforts that would allow Maricopa County to become another Los Angeles, where crime is rampant and public safety is compromised. I will continue to collaborate closely with our dedicated law enforcement partners to address the challenges that lie ahead. I look forward to serving our community and keeping Maricopa County safe.”
Daniel Stefanski is a reporter for AZ Free News. You can send him news tips using this link.
by Daniel Stefanski | Dec 8, 2024 | Economy, News
By Daniel Stefanski |
Arizona Republican efforts to lower monthly bills for renters around the state have come to fruition.
Late last month, Arizona Senate President Warren Petersen shared a screenshot from an apartment property manager, alerting residents that rental taxes would no longer be on their bills. The manager wrote, “For years, Arizona has been one of the few states to allow cities and government entities to charge tax on rent. In 2023, a law was passed banning such transaction privilege tax. While the law was passed in 2023, it was not set to go into effect until January 1, 2025. Therefore, starting in January, rental tax will no longer be charged, and you will see a decrease in your monthly charges.”
Petersen responded to the news, saying, “It’s happening. Renters are about to get relief from the rental tax repeal passed by the Republican led legislature. The rental tax repeal was an important part of our majority plan to deliver inflation relief. To get the governors signature we had to delay the effective date to Jan 1 2025. Many people said the Dems would take the majority and put the tax back in place. Fortunately for renters we held the Senate and the House.”
Senator Shawnna Bolick also weighed in on the announcement from her chamber’s leader, indicating that additional plans to lower costs for Arizonans might be forthcoming from Republicans in the state legislature. She said, “In 2022, when I first sponsored that bill I met a guy from southern Arizona who asked me to do something about the residential rental tax. I spoke with this same gentleman this past week once again and he asked me to look at another tax issue since it is now going away. Stay tuned.”
Representative Travis Grantham echoed Petersen’s comments, writing, “So happy we made this happen. Wouldn’t have happened without you endlessly pushing for it!”
In August 2023, Governor Katie Hobbs signed SB 1131, the rental tax elimination bill for Arizona tenants, into law.
According to Arizona Senate Republicans at the time of the signing, “There are approximately 70 municipalities within our state charging this tax, while cities and towns continue to collect record revenues. From fiscal years 2019 to 2023, state-shared revenues from both sales and income taxes combined grew $733 million, or 59%. This increase is on top of any sales taxes or property taxes individually levied by each city. Between FY 2024 and FY 2025, those shared revenues are expected to grow by an additional $389 million.”
Hobbs had vetoed an earlier version of the rental tax prohibition. She gave two reasons for her action, stating, “First this bill lacks any enforceable mechanism to ensure relief will be provided to renters. As noted by the legislature’s own attorney, provisions in the bill that purport to require that tax savings be passed on to renters face challenges under both the state and federal constitutions. If we are going to promise relief to renters, it’s important that we are able to ensure they actually receive it.”
The League of Arizona Cities & Towns – as well as several cities and towns across the state – opposed the updated bill as it progressed through the state legislature and through the Governor’s Office in 2023. The Senate passed the bill on March 2, then the House on May 15. The Senate then concurred with the amended proposal on June 13. SB 1131 was not transmitted to Governor Hobbs until July 31 – the same day that the Legislature approved the negotiated Prop 400 plan.
Daniel Stefanski is a reporter for AZ Free News. You can send him news tips using this link.
by Matthew Holloway | Dec 7, 2024 | News
By Matthew Holloway |
The Arizona Free Enterprise Club released a statement on Wednesday severely criticizing the Arizona Corporation Commission (ACC). The statement came after the ACC, which is charged with protecting Arizonans from a non-competitive energy industry, voted to abdicate its duty by allowing formulaic rates that increase automatically year over year, as opposed to every increase being subject to public scrutiny and requiring approval.
The vote on Tuesday was carried 3-2 with commissioners Anna Tovar and Lea Márquez Peterson dissenting. According to the ACC, its policy statement “allows regulated utilities to propose formula rates in future rate cases. Under this approach, the ACC reviews and accepts as the rate a formula for calculating the utility’s cost of service, including clear definitions of inputs to that formula and a process for updating rates every year as the utility’s costs change.”
The commission claimed, “Formula rates will still be monitored closely to ensure that the utility does not over-earn relative to the cost of service for providing service (plus a reasonable return on invested capital), while continuing to provide service safely and reliably.”
The Arizona Free Enterprise Club responded in a statement saying:
“Following contentious double digit rate hikes being approved and ESG Resource Plans committed to going ‘Net Zero’ by 2050 being rubber stamped, the Commission has rushed through approving new rules masquerading as a mere ‘policy statement’ that could insulate utilities and the Commission from having to face ratepayers in future rate cases. The ‘policy statement’ would depart from traditional rate making and pursue ‘formula based rates’ offloading risk from investors to ratepayers and baking in automatic rate increases with little transparency or opportunity for ratepayer engagement.
“The only support for this ‘policy statement’ came from the utilities themselves. The Commission is charged to protect ratepayers by regulating the utilities, not the other way around. The Commission should pump the brakes, not rush through major rulemaking decisions in a lame duck session.
“The Arizona Free Enterprise Club is committed to protecting ratepayers, ensuring affordable and reliable energy in Arizona. We will continue to work to ensure utilities will not be able to force their captive ratepayers to foot the bill, especially through automatic rate hikes, for their costly goal to go ‘Net Zero’ by 2050 by shuttering reliable sources of energy generation to build out expensive and unreliable wind, solar, and battery storage projects.”
Attorney Dan Pozesfsky of Arizona’s Residential Utility Consumer Office (RUCO), expressed a similar view according to 12News saying, “Trying to implement formula rates through a policy statement rather than through rules is inappropriate, illegal and in this case denies due process.”
The outlet reported that the ACC, ignoring its own plans for the vote, rushed to schedule it noting that in a previous meeting Commission Chairman Jim O’Connor had told stakeholders, “Give us feedback. Bring us guardrails.” He added, “I eagerly look forward to that kind of input at our next workshop.” However, no workshop occurred and no published legal opinions were issued.
Diane Brown of the nonprofit Arizona PIRG Education Fund stressed that the vote was conducted with critical questions about the scheme remaining unanswered. She said, “This is precisely to me why it was so important to have the legal memo that this Commission said they would get. While there are statements that there will be increased transparency, I’m not seeing evidence of that. It is troubling to me that we haven’t heard from the ALJ (administrative law judge). We have not heard from Staff.”
Matthew Holloway is a senior reporter for AZ Free News. Follow him on X for his latest stories, or email tips to Matthew@azfreenews.com.
by Staff Reporter | Dec 7, 2024 | News
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.
AZ Free News is your #1 source for Arizona news and politics. You can send us news tips using this link.
by Staff Reporter | Dec 7, 2024 | Education, News
By Staff Reporter |
Arizona grew the number of Education Savings Plan (or “AZ529”) accounts to nearly 47,600 over the last four years.
Arizona Treasurer Kimberly Yee reported that assets of those accounts increased nearly 50 percent to $2.4 billion within the last four years.
AZ529 accounts allow parents, grandparents, or future students to take a tax-advantaged approach to saving for their educational expenses. Those opening the accounts also don’t need to be related to the beneficiary, and they may accept gifts to these accounts from others.
The opening cost for an AZ529 account starts with investments as low as $15 monthly and no application fee, with plan providers going up to $25 and $150.
AZ529 savings may be used at most accredited public or private universities, colleges, community colleges, technical and vocational schools nationwide, or apprenticeship programs, and even certain foreign institutions.
Qualified educational expenses include tuition and fees; books, supplies, and equipment; public, private, or religious K-12 school tuition for up to $10,000 per year; and up to $10,000 in student loan repayments.
Under these accounts, distributions are exempt from Arizona income tax and federal income tax. AZ529 received Morningstar’s 2023 Silver Rating.
Not only are the distributions tax-exempt, but contributions are tax deductible. Arizona allows AZ529 contributors to receive deductions of up to $4,000 per beneficiary for married tax filers who file a joint return and $2,000 per beneficiary for individual tax filers.
AZ529 plans must be funded by December 31 of this year to be eligible for deductions on 2024 taxes.
Arizona offers two financial institutions for AZ529 plans: Fidelity Investments and Goldman Sachs 529 Plan. The former allows for personal account opening, while the latter allows for personal or financial advisors to open accounts. Both have contribution limits of $590,000.
AZ529 also offers an annual essay writing contest, with hundreds of dollars in rewards offered. This past year, 20 students won over $500 toward their AZ529 accounts out of the over 600 who participated.
This year, the state began allowing certain “leftover” AZ529 funds to be transferred to a Roth IRA free of any tax, penalty, or applicable income limits for the first time. Qualifying AZ529 accounts have been maintained for a minimum of 15 years under the same owner and same designated beneficiary, and the amount transferred must also have been contributed at least five years prior to the transfer and the aggregate lifetime limit for rolling over is $35,000.
Or, account owners have the option to change the name of the beneficiary to another. In the event that the beneficiary receives a scholarship, becomes disabled, or dies, the account owner may withdraw the assets in the account without incurring the 10 percent federal tax penalty normally issued for non-qualified withdrawals.
Congress created 529 plans in 1996, officially known as “qualified tuition programs.” AZ529 plans are the state of Arizona’s version of these programs.
Federal financial aid programs may take up to about six percent of the AZ529 account balance into consideration as a parental asset when determining eligibility for need-based aid.
AZ Free News is your #1 source for Arizona news and politics. You can send us news tips using this link.
by Daniel Stefanski | Dec 6, 2024 | News
By Daniel Stefanski |
One Arizona Democrat appears to be leading the charge against the incoming Republican presidential administration’s plans to secure the nation’s southern border and protect Americans.
Late last month, Tucson Mayor Regina Romero released a statement in opposition to President-elect Donald J. Trump’s border security and enforcement proposals once he takes the oath of office on January 20, 2025. She wrote, “I want to reassure every single resident that I am committed to do all we can to keep our community safe. I am deeply troubled by President-Elect Trump’s plans for mass deportation. I believe they are cruel and immoral. I will work with our police chief to make sure that our focus remains on protecting and serving Tucsonans. Here in Tucson, we know how to stand up and fight against hate and racist laws. Part of our history is coming together with our faith leaders and families from separation. I am unwavering in my commitment to this fight.”
Romero added, “While we do not have specific details about how mass deportations will be carried out by President-Elect Trump’s administration, we do know that it will be painful to children, families and our immigrant community. We do not have the exact details as to when and if Proposition 314 goes into effect, we know that this hate-filled proposition draws from SC 1070 – the show me your papers law. We are a compassionate city that knows we are stronger together and that values our multi-racial heritage. Justice will prevail.”
The Democrat mayor’s fiery comments earned a response from Trump’s incoming Border Czar, Tom Homan. On the Fox News Channel with host Laura Ingraham, Homan said, “We got children dying on the border every day. We got women being sexually assaulted by the cartels every day. Someone is going to die on the border tonight. Women are being raped on the border tonight. So what’s cruel about securing that border and saving lives, first of all? But I’ll give her the same warning I’ve given the rest of the sanctuary city mayors and the governors: you can not help us. That’s fine. You should get the hell out of the way, then, ’cause we’re going to do the job.”
Homan also stated, “And we got one hell of an attorney general coming in, Pam Bondi. I think she’ll read that statute the same way I do it. I’m not a lawyer, but I can read, and we’re going to have consequences of people violating the law and try to prevent us from doing our job.”
Romero appeared to be the loudest Arizona Democrat who stood against the announced policies and plans of the Trump administration, but she wasn’t the only one in opposition. Last month, Governor Katie Hobbs released an ambiguous post on her official X account, indirectly taking aim at the Trump administration’s forthcoming actions. She said, “Securing our border is not a red issue or a blue issue. It’s an Arizona issue and an American issue. I’ll work with anyone to secure our border while standing up to misguided policies that attack Arizonans.”
Thus far in her administration, Hobbs has resisted most attempts by Republicans to maximize Arizona’s resources and laws to better protect communities against the harms from illegal immigration. That resistance led to state legislative Republicans sending a border security ballot measure to voters this past November – Proposition 314, which gave local law enforcement more tools to combat illegal immigration across the state. Arizona Republicans are expected to continue to search for ways to assist the Trump Administration to stop the flow of illegal immigration into and through their state over the next two years.
This week, the Trump Administration may have received a legal boost to its future efforts to remove illegal aliens from the country. On Tuesday, a panel with the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit affirmed a district court’s judgment for the federal government in USA v. King County, which held that a local jurisdiction’s Executive Order, which prohibited fixed base operators (FBOs) from servicing U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) charter flights, violated the law. That decision will likely be key in the new year, if and when local officials, like Romero, may attempt to obstruct the federal government’s actions when it comes to deportations and enforcement of U.S. immigration laws.
Daniel Stefanski is a reporter for AZ Free News. You can send him news tips using this link.
