An Arizona appellate court has kicked a sales tax proposal for the city of Scottsdale off the November ballot.
The Arizona Court of Appeals sided with a challenge by three city residents (represented by the Goldwater Institute) that the city’s ballot descriptions inaccurately characterized the sales tax as a decrease rather than a pitch for a new tax.
“The City’s description of the measure fails to properly disclose the proposition’s principal provision — that it creates a new tax,” said the court.
The city of Scottsdale characterized the sales tax proposal as a decrease of the current sales tax expiring next June from .20 percent to .15 percent over 30 years.
“Shall Scottsdale’s current 0.20% transaction privilege and use tax rate, expiring June 30, 2025, be replaced and reduced to 0.15% for 30 years to fund improvements, maintenance, and increased police and fire protection of citywide parks, recreational facilities, and the preserve as determined by city ordinance?”
The Arizona Superior Court had previously disagreed the ballot proposal language was false or misleading, and had granted the city’s motion to dismiss the residents’ complaint. However, in their Monday ruling, the Arizona Court of Appeals took issue with the city’s promise that the new sales tax was a replacement and reduction to the current one.
“This new tax would neither reduce the current tax rate (because the tax will remain at .2 percent until it expires), nor reduce the current tax rate after its expiration (because it would create a new tax),” stated the court. “The proposition’s description that a ‘YES’ vote would reduce the “transaction privilege and use tax rate” — which in total is 1.75% and made up of multiple different taxes including the 0.20% at issue here — to 0.15% is misleading because a ‘YES’ vote, in fact, would implement a brand-new tax.”
The court went on to say that the city’s explanation of the implication of a “no” vote was misleading because it could prompt voters to believe that their voting had an effect on the inevitable end of the current tax.
“[T]he ‘NO’ language in both the full text and Tagline text fails to communicate the essential change that a ‘NO’ vote would effectuate,” said the court. “Namely, that the current tax would terminate as scheduled and no longer exist. A ‘NO’ vote does not, somehow, result in a reduction as the language states; a ‘NO’ vote results in the current tax terminating on June 30, 2025, as currently scheduled.”
In its order, the Arizona Court of Appeals reversed the superior court order and enjoined the city and Maricopa County from including the measure on the November ballot.
Although the court offered some explanation for its ruling, the appeals court promised a full opinion would come out as well.
The Goldwater Institute said in a press release announcing the court win that the ruling would ensure more honest representation for taxpayers in the future.
“Local leaders in Scottsdale and across Arizona should consider themselves warned: public officials should not be in the business of deceiving taxpayers so they’ll vote to raise taxes on themselves,” said the think tank.
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President Donald J. Trump will be visiting Arizona on Friday according to an announcement from Turning Point Action. Trump will be visiting the border with Mexico on Thursday and holding a rally at the Desert Diamond Arena in Glendale on Friday. After Vice President Kamala Harris and Gov. Tim Walz tread water in Chicago at the DNC with radical leftists breaking down barricades, their opponent, resurgent in the polls, will be touching down in the Arizona battleground and playing to a 20,000 seat arena.
Turning Point Action touted the visit on their website writing, “In his first scheduled rally following the conclusion of the DNC in Chicago; the rally will provide President Trump, Turning Point PAC and Turning Point Action speakers their first opportunity to react to updates and news from the convention, as well as take direct aim at Kamala Harris’ economic proposals that have been widely-criticized by mainstream, and even left-leaning news media as ‘communist’ policies that have ‘failed’ in the Soviet Union, Venezuela, and Argentina.
Harris and Walz rallied in the same arena on August 9. Doubtlessly both campaigns will seek to compare audience sizes and enthusiasm. The Harris event allegedly drew a crowd of 15,000 or 75% occupancy according to the outlet. Based on a study from the Harvard Kennedy School’s Ash Center for Democratic Governance and Innovation, the event on Friday will be telling with a unique opportunity for an apples to apples comparison. On average in 2024, Trump events have drawn about 5,000 attendees cross 28 rallies so far. Biden, before dropping out, only drew about 1,300 average across the four rallies he held. Meanwhile Harris and Walz have capitalized on post-Biden enthusiasm and played exclusively to larger venues with an average across the six venues so far of about 13,400 attendees.
Trump last played in Arizona to a packed house at the Phoenix Dream City Church, and the 3,000 seat venue was easily overwhelmed by the response. Trump’s rallies routinely have crowd responses that pack houses and overrun venue capacities.
The Trump campaign said in a press release,
“President Donald Trump and JD Vance are heartbroken to see the path of death and destruction left behind by Kamala Harris and Tim Walz. Hard-working Arizona families are paying a steep price for Kamala’s dangerously liberal agenda that is devastating American cities with skyrocketing costs and crime ridden streets.
Kamala’s open border policies are fueling a drug crisis in the state. In Maricopa County, more than three people die every day on average due to fentanyl. Over half of the total fentanyl pills entering the country originate from the Arizona border. Fentanyl has overtaken meth as the deadliest drug in Arizona. Enough Fentanyl was seized last year to kill every Arizonan 14 times over.
President Donald Trump and JD Vance will fight to ease the financial pressures placed on households and re-establish law and order in Arizona! We can Make America Great Again by tackling lawlessness head-on, ceasing the endless flow of illegal immigrants across our southern border, and reversing the detrimental effects of inflation by restoring people’s wealth.“
Republican Senate nominee Kari Lake is expected to speak at the rally as well according to her post to X on Monday.
I am thrilled to announce that I will be speaking at President Donald J. Trump's Arizona for Trump rally!
Doors Open at 11:00 am at Desert Diamond Arena in Glendale on Friday.
Since President Joe Biden stood down from the 2024 election, Arizona’s battleground status was entrenched with Harris enjoying a bump from 2 to 5 percent in polls according to RealClearPolling. However, in the past two weeks the race has narrowed to within a single percentage point per the RCP average. Prior to Biden’s withdrawal, Trump enjoyed a firm 5-6 point advantage over the former Democrat incumbent that only grew as concerns over Biden’s viability grew.
In Glendale the event’s doors are set to open at 11:00 a.m. and President Trump is expected to deliver his remarks at 4:00 p.m., although other speakers will be presenting starting at 2 p.m.
The Arizona Department of Health Services (ADHS) is proposing to put a strict limit on childcare enrollment, but a policy group says that’s illegal.
The Goldwater Institute advised ADHS in a letter that such a cap on childcare facilities (preschools, daycares, and day camps, for example) would violate statutory requirements on agency rulemaking.
Arizona law restricts agencies from making any rules that exceed authorized subject matter areas, that supplement a more specific grant of rulemaking authority, and that aren’t specifically authorized by statute.
The Goldwater Institute argued that the proposal to impose a maximum group size on childcare facilities constitutes an authority that ADHS doesn’t possess within their regulatory powers.
“[A]n across-the-board cap on ‘group size,’ independent of any relevant considerations such as child-adult ratio, is not a regulation of ‘staffing per number and age groups of children’ [per their regulatory authority] and it is not justified by any other provision in the statute,” said the Goldwater Institute.
The organization also predicted in its letter that such a proposal would result in a greater burden on childcare facilities and a greater cost for families, in addition to reducing overall childcare availability.
The proposal concerns amendments to two rules pertaining to staff-to-children ratios: 9-5-404 and 9-5-726. The amendment adds on limitations of group size per age group.
Group size limitations begin small with younger children and expand as the ages rise: infants are limited to 10 in a group; one-year-old children are limited to 12 in a group; two-year-old children are limited to 16 in a group; three-year-old children are limited to 26 in a group; four-year-old children are limited to 30 in a group; and both five-year-old children and school-age children are limited to 40 in a group.
The amendments also struck provisions allowing volunteers to be counted as staff in staff-to-children ratios and restricting student aides or qualified teacher caregiver aides from being counted as staff. Also replaced were any instances of staff as “caregivers,” instead renaming them as “child educators.”
In a press release, Goldwater Institute staff attorney John Thorpe said the group size restrictions would not only be an exercise of authority beyond ADHS’ scope, it would serve to restrict families’ critical access to childcare facilities. Thorpe marked the proposal as another example of “ill-informed, heavy-handed bureaucratic regulation” within the state and nationwide.
“Imposing an arbitrary cap on the number of children allowed in a space — regardless of the size of the space, nature of the activity, or number of adults supervising — makes no sense,” stated Thorpe. “It’s especially pernicious during a childcare shortage, as it will force good preschools and childcare facilities to turn away families they’re perfectly equipped to serve for no other reason than an irrational bureaucratic requirement.”
Last December, a report by the Council for Strong America estimated that Arizona lost close to $5 billion annually in earnings, productivity, and revenue due to lack of adequate childcare. Over half of responding parents said they were late for work, leaving work early, missing days of work, or low in their productivity at work due to their childcare struggles.
Nearly 20 percent reported having been let go or fired from their work related to those struggles.
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Democratic Candidate for Maricopa County Sheriff Tyler Kamp has found his campaign marred by controversy including allegations of sexual harassment during his final year with the Phoenix Police Department. However, new documentation shows that this was not Kamp’s first violation of the law during his tenure.
Records from the Arizona Department of Public Safety and Payson Regional Justice Court obtained by AZ Free News have revealed that on August 10, 2019 at 11:46 AM Kamp was subject to a traffic stop and issued a citation for driving his vehicle without a current registration. Kamp reportedly pleaded guilty to the charge which under Arizona Revised Statue §28-2532 carries a $300 fine.
But further, the citation from the DPS seems to show Kamp’s drivers license was extremely out of date, listing his home address in Waddell even though records indicate by 2019 he hadn’t lived there for approximately 8 years.
Closer examination of the citation also reveals that Kamp was speeding, clocked by radar at 52mph in a posted 35 mph zone, moving past mile post 270 on SR260 northeast of Payson in Gila County. Although cited for the registration violation, Kamp doesn’t appear to have been charged with either the outdated license or speeding and should’ve been charged under Arizona Revised Statue §28-448 and 28-702.01 respectively. All of this happened while he was working as a Phoenix Police Officer.
A search of the Maricopa County Assessor’s office confirmed that Kamp’s Waddell home was sold in July 2011 and voting records confirm that although an early ballot was sent to Kamp at the Waddell address for the 2011 general election, the ballot was not cast, indicating he no longer lived there. According to ARS §28-448, “If a person’s name or address changes after the person applies for or receives a driver license or nonoperating identification license or after the person applies for or receives a vehicle registration or vehicle title, the person shall notify the department within ten days after the change of the old and new address.” Violation of the statute is listed as a civil traffic violation.
Kamp was clocked driving at 17 mph over the limit on SR260, and under ARS § 28-702.01, “If the maximum speed limit on a public highway in this state is at least thirty miles per hour in an area that is outside of an urbanized area, a person shall not drive a motor vehicle at a speed in excess of the posted speed limit on that highway,” and “If … the speed at which the court finds the person drove is more than ten miles per hour in excess of the posted speed limit, the offense is designated as a civil traffic violation and the person is subject to a civil penalty.”
As reported by ABC15 on July 8, Kamp is already facing allegations that he sexually harassed a rookie police officer during his final year with the Phoenix Police Department according to an investigation completed by the City of Phoenix Equal Opportunity Department (EOD) following his retirement from the force. Kamp was reportedly never disciplined in the matter.
Investigators wrote in their final report cited by ABC15, “(Redacted) reported that Lt. Kamp sent sexually harassing text messages to her. The evidence provided by (redacted) corroborated her allegations. Although Lt. Kamp denied sending the messages, (redacted) provided screenshots as part of the investigation.”
Responding to the allegations in an interview with the outlet, Kamp was critical of the investigation telling reporters, “This wasn’t a full investigation.” He added, “It was not a complete investigation… I think the text messages you’re referring to are completely taken out of context.” The texts Kamp referenced reportedly showed him discussing sex with the female officer, making comments about her body, stating that he was aroused and asking her to “give him a heads up the next time she was going to wear yoga pants,” according to ABC15 with the alleged harassment taking place from 2020-2021.
Then-Lieutenant Kamp retired from the Phoenix Police Department in September of that year.
The alleged harassment was reported by the rookie officer in early 2022 leading to a formal complaint and the subsequent investigation by the Phoenix EOD.
The outlet also obtained records showing that Kamp was suspended from the force for one day in 2014 for “improperly accessing a confidential law enforcement database without a legitimate criminal justice purpose.” He was further reprimanded for the repeated use of his assigned city vehicle for personal use in 2013 according to ABC15 Chief Investigator Dave Biscobing.
Arizona Department of Education (ADE) Superintendent Tom Horne demanded an explanation from a prominent anti-school choice leader after her remarks defending males in female bathrooms and locker rooms.
Save Our Schools Arizona Director Beth Lewis criticized three of Horne’s guests for opposing males in female spaces. Lewis questioned why gender mattered in terms of intimate and traditionally gendered public spaces.
“Why do Tom Horne and these Grandmas care who my kids are sharing a bathroom with?” posted Lewis. “My kids and their peers accept each other — gay, straight, lesbian, trans, bi, they don’t care!”
Horne released a statement on Thursday challenging Lewis over her remarks. The superintendent said Lewis’ position was reckless and jeopardized the safety of children.
“These changes to Title IX regulations are outrageous since they allow biological boys to expose themselves to girls in bathrooms and locker rooms and invade the girls’ privacy,” stated Horne. “They will also cause unbelievable management challenges for campus administrators, teachers and coaches that will make their jobs much more difficult.”
Horne blasts "Save Our Schools" leader for supporting biological boys using girls' locker rooms and showers Social media post reveals stance For immediate release: August 15, 2024 pic.twitter.com/DnADNSDav9
— Arizona Department of Education (@azedschools) August 15, 2024
The Biden administration modified Title IX regulations to redefine the term “sex” to include “gender identity” back in April. The change impacts access to gendered programs, activities, or spaces, which extends not only to bathrooms and locker rooms but sports teams as well.
Louisiana has challenged this change by the Department of Education in court. Last month, the Fifth Circuit and Sixth Circuit Courts of Appeals rejected the Biden administration’s requests to undo separate injunctions against their Title IX changes, stemming from challenges by the states of Kentucky and Louisiana. On Friday, the U.S. Supreme Court upheld the injunctions.
Horne reflected on findings within the courts, specifically in the Louisiana case which presented evidence of a pattern of males attacking females in public restrooms.
“The courts see the tragedies that have already occurred because of policies such as the new Title IX regulations,” said Horne. “Beth Lewis and SOS have no excuse for not understanding that as well.”
Lewis responded to the statement by characterizing opposition to males in female bathrooms as “hateful rhetoric,” and deriding Horne as “a weirdo who is publicly obsessing over kids’ genitals.”
Supt. Horne is again using his state agency handle to (weakly) attempt to troll me for standing up against his hateful rhetoric 😂 I’ll say it again — @RealTomHorne is a weirdo who is publicly obsessing over kids’ genitals 💁🏻♀️ https://t.co/bf0emvwpSBpic.twitter.com/GnHMvQlssX
Prior to directing Save Our Schools Arizona, Lewis taught elementary and middle school students for over a decade.
Save Our Schools Arizona is a public schools advocacy organization with much of its focus on opposing the state’s school choice program. As the fight over gender ideology ramped up in recent years, their organization also took on advocacy in favor of LGBTQ+-friendly legislation.
In this past session, the organization opposed a requirement for students and adults to restrict access to school bathrooms, changing facilities, and any sleeping quarters in accordance with biological gender, as opposed to gender identity (the mental belief behind transgenderism).
Save Our Schools Arizona also regularly backs Democratic candidates, most recently applauding the naming of Minnesota Governor Tim Walz as Kamala Harris’ vice presidential pick.
AZ Free News is your #1 source for Arizona news and politics. You can send us news tips using this link.
Arizona’s high court ruled on the ballot eligibility of a controversial measure on border security.
Last week, the Arizona Supreme Court decided that “HCR 2060 will appear on the ballot.”
The decision from the court follows months of legislating and legal wrangling over the legislation to send border security proposals to voters for November’s General Election. In the decision order from the Arizona Supreme Court, it stated that it “unanimously agrees with the superior court that Appellants have not met their burden to overcome the strong presumption that HCR 2060 is constitutional.”
The “X” account for the Arizona Senate Republicans reacted to the news, posting, “BREAKING: Another FAILURE for Democrats and special interests fighting to keep the Secure the Border Act off the ballot… and GREAT NEWS for the citizens of Arizona! Moments ago, the Arizona Supreme Court unanimously ruled: “HCR 2060 WILL appear on the ballot.” Arizona voters will have the opportunity to take border security into their own hands this November.”
🚨BREAKING: Another FAILURE for Democrats and special interests fighting to keep the Secure the Border Act off the ballot… and GREAT NEWS for the citizens of Arizona!
Moments ago, the Arizona Supreme Court unanimously ruled: "HCR 2060 WILL appear on the ballot."
Republican State Representative John Gillette added, “Great news. The people have a say on how we can deal with our open border invasion, despite the vetoed Bills and the lack of federal leadership.”
Great news. The people have a say on how we can deal with our open border invasion, despite the vetoed Bills and the lack of federal leadership. https://t.co/lPMIHGMmQf
— Rep. John Gillette AZ House LD30 (@AzRepGillette) August 14, 2024
HCR 2060 will appear on the ballot in the upcoming fall election as Proposition 314. If passed by voters, it would give local law enforcement additional resources to better protect their communities from the harms created by the border crisis that has swelled over the past few years.
Daniel Stefanski is a reporter for AZ Free News. You can send him news tips using this link.
