by Daniel Stefanski | Dec 27, 2023 | News
By Daniel Stefanski |
Arizona’s top business organization is speaking out against a closure of two significant border crossings in Texas.
Last week week, the Arizona Chamber of Commerce and Industry issued a statement on “X” after the U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) announced its suspension of rail operations in Eagle Pass and El Paso, Texas, due to the massive influx of illegal immigration all along the southern border. In the press release sharing the news, CBP stated that it was “taking additional actions to surge personnel and address (the) concerning development (of) a recent resurgence of smuggling organizations moving migrants through Mexico via freight trains.”
The Chamber’s “X” account said, “Rail crossing closures in Texas affect commerce border-wide, including here in AZ. We’re in a busy shipping/shopping season. We’ve already seen how Lukeville’s closure has affected cross-border commerce. The U.S. Department of Homeland Security should protect our supply chains and reverse these closures.”
In an opinion piece published in the Chamber Business News, AZ Chamber President and CEO Danny Seiden, along with the President and CEO of the Texas Association of Business, Glen Hamer, warned of the negative business and economic consequences of the increasing number of closures at the border, calling these actions “unacceptable.” The two men wrote that these closures “damage cross-border trade….cause shipping delays and cost increases, which get passed along to consumers in the form of higher prices on store shelves….make travel more difficult for folks who want to visit friends and family or simply run errands, and … cut off small businesses from their customers.”
Seiden and Hamer gave four recommendations at the end of their piece, including one for the government to prioritize “processing of legitimate trade and travel over migrants with dubious amnesty claims.”
Over the past few months, the border crisis has deteriorated considerably, forcing the Biden Administration to take rather unprecedented measures in a frenzied attempt to mitigate public perception of the massive influx of illegal immigrants into the country. One of those actions was the closure of the Lukeville Port of Entry, which is the main thoroughfare to the popular tourist destination of Rocky Point, forcing families or commerce operators to detour hours to the east or west. A local business owner recently told an Arizona outlet that, in the aftermath of the closure, Rocky Point “was like a little ghost town,” noting that “local business, restaurants, hotels, rentals, everything has declined.”
With no end in sight to the historic wave of illegal immigration, and no word on whether the Lukeville, Eagle Pass, and El Paso border operations will be reopened for business, many are wondering when and where the next major economic disruption will take place as the government searches for answers to solve this crisis.
Daniel Stefanski is a reporter for AZ Free News. You can send him news tips using this link.
by Daniel Stefanski | Jul 15, 2023 | News
By Daniel Stefanski |
As the Arizona Legislative session may be nearing its final stretch, the state’s premier business organization is highlighting bills that would have had grave consequences for jobs.
On Wednesday, the Arizona Chamber Foundation and the Common Sense Institute released a report, showing that “67 failed bills from the 2023 legislative session in Arizona” would have cost the state’s economy $9.5 billion and deprived individuals of 113,500 jobs. According to the report, those bills would also have “imposed over $25 billion in annual new costs on Arizona’s businesses, including $15 billion in new taxes and fees.”
The two organizations compared Arizona’s path to our neighboring state of Colorado – if the Grand Canyon State would have passed any or all of the 67 bills of note. They reveal that 13 bills that failed this year in Arizona, “have actually passed in Colorado.”
Danny Seiden, the President and CEO of the Arizona Chamber of Commerce and Industry issued a statement in conjunction with the report, writing, “At the Arizona Chamber, we are committed to protecting the job gains we have seen in Arizona in recent years. This analysis provides important data points for legislators to consider as these failed bills will likely resurface in future sessions.”
Katie Ratlief, the Executive Director of Common Sense Institute Arizona, also weighed in on the announcement, saying, “This study shows that policy matters when it comes to jobs and economic impacts. Policymakers and the public should be informed about the short and long term impacts these pieces of legislation have so they can weigh pros and cons and make informed decisions.”
AZ Free News reached out to Arizona Senate President Warren Petersen, one of the key forces behind killing these bills throughout the still-ongoing session, to respond to the report. Petersen said, “This is a great example of why policy matters. Arizona has built on years of sound policy under Republican leadership that has helped grow our state’s economy. We’ll continue to do everything we can to protect Arizona citizens and our economy from the type of policies that have negatively impacted Colorado.”
House Speaker Ben Toma, another stalwart defender of conservative principles in the Legislature, added, “The far left has tightened its grip on the Democrats in Arizona and it shows in the bills they introduced this session in the State Legislature. They propose business and environmental regulations that would stymie growth, kill jobs, and make energy costs higher. In my term as Speaker of the House, I will continue to work to stop these policy proposals so we can continue to be a state on a positive trajectory with low taxation, high growth, and maximum freedom.”
Freshman Republican Representative Matt Gress shared his thoughts on the report in a tweet, stating, “POLICY MATTERS. Arizona succeeds when leaders trust people over government. @CSInstituteAZ’s report reveals that some politicians think they know better than you with terrible ideas like, tax hikes, higher energy costs to fund more ‘green’ regulations, greater compliance with the ‘Mother, may I?’ administrative state. That’s everything Arizona is not.”
Daniel Stefanski is a reporter for AZ Free News. You can send him news tips using this link.
by Terri Jo Neff | Aug 9, 2022 | Economy, News
By Terri Jo Neff |
The Arizona Chamber of Commerce and Industry is hoping the U.S. House of Representatives takes a hard look at H.R. 5376, which was formerly known as the Build Back Better Act until being recently rechristened as the Inflation Reduction Act of 2022.
“Arizona job creators oppose the vast majority of the provisions in this bill,” Chamber CEO Danny Seiden said Sunday after the U.S. Senate passed the legislation on party lines. “This bill will not reduce inflation and it will not make the U.S. economy more competitive. Renaming a massive tax and spending bill the Inflation Reduction Act does not improve it.”
Seiden says Sen. Kyrsten Sinema met with Arizona business stakeholders to hear their concerns and did help blunt some of the more harmful provisions, especially those which impact manufacturing businesses already doubly hit by inflation and supply chain disruptions
He also acknowledged there are a few beneficial elements of H.R. 5376 such as provisions which encourage continued business investment and provide significant drought resiliency funding to promote a water secure future.
But despite some of “positive aspects,” Seiden insists H.R. 5376 leaves much to be desired. Which is why he and other state business leaders are calling on Arizona’s nine Representatives to take a closer look at the bill in advance of an expected Aug. 12 vote.
“With the bill headed to the House, we would encourage the Arizona delegation to consider the legislation’s negative effect on Arizona jobs,” Seiden said, adding that that renaming the unpopular Build Back Better Act does not improve the fact the legislation is a massive tax and spending bill.
The legislation is estimated to raise $740 billion in additional revenue from new taxes as well as more enforcement of existing tax laws. It also authorizes $430 billion in new spending, although a more thorough analysis by the Congressional Budget Office has not been completed.
One thing the CBO already knows, U.S. Senator Bernie Sanders said on the Senate Floor, is that what he labeled the “so-called” Inflation Reduction Act will have “a minimal impact on inflation.”
The CEO of the National Association of Manufacturers also expressed disappointment with H.R. 5376. According to Jay Timmons, the Inflation Reduction Act will stifle manufacturing investment in America, undermining the very businesses which kept America’s economy afloat during the COVID-19 pandemic.
“To be sure, (the bill) was worse before Sen. Sinema worked to protect some areas of manufacturing investment,” Timmons said. “But the final bill is still bad policy and will harm our ability to compete in a global economy.”
Also speaking out against H.R. 5376 is the Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America, whose members will be directly impacted by Medicare drug price controls included in the legislation.
“They say they’re fighting inflation, but the Biden administration’s own data show that prescription medicines are not fueling inflation,” said PhRMA CEO Stephen Ubl. “And they say the bill won’t harm innovation, but various experts, biotech investors and patient advocates agree that this bill will lead to fewer new cures and treatments for patients battling cancer, Alzheimer’s and other diseases.”
