The State of Arizona is fast-tracking a tax reduction policy through the legislature that became a staple of President Donald J. Trump’s campaign platform over the past year.
This week, the Arizona House of Representatives Committee on Ways and Means passed HB 2081, which would exempt taxation on tipped wages from the state’s individual income tax.
State Representative Gail Griffin, a Republican who was the sponsor of this legislation, said, “I worked in the service industry years ago and understand the challenges tipped employees face. Tips are an expression of appreciation from customers for services provided. Tips are gifts and, in my opinion, should not be taxed. HB 2081 ensures that Arizonans who rely on tips to support themselves and their families can keep more of their hard-earned money. I’m grateful to Chairman Olson for making this the committee’s first bill for the session.”
Another Republican lawmaker, State Representative Neal Carter, added, “A key feature of a good taxation system is voluntary compliance and simplicity of administration. Tips are often paid in real time and in strange amounts. Taxing tips simply punishes the honest because strict compliance is difficult to achieve.”
As a candidate for President, Trump announced his plan for no federal taxes on tips back in June in the State of Nevada. Shortly after Trump’s announcement last summer, his Democrat opponent, then-Vice President Kamala Harris, mirrored his proposal in an attempt to woo voters on the campaign stump. On Inauguration Day this week, the newly minted Commander in Chief riffed that he thought his campaign may have secured the State of Nevada’s electoral votes in the November General Election because of that promise.
A poll from The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research earlier this month showed that 54% of respondents would strongly or somewhat favor eliminating taxes on earnings from tips.
The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics estimates that there are 2,277,900 waiters and waitresses across the country.
The bill passed the Arizona House committee along a party-line vote – 5-3, with one Democrat member absent.
According to the Arizona Legislature’s Request to Speak system, representatives from the Republican Liberty Caucus of Arizona, Arizona Licensed Beverage Association, and Fraternal Order of Police AZ State Lodge, signed in to support the bill. Representatives from Living United for Change in Arizona, the Arizona Center for Economic Progress, and Rural Arizona Action opposed the legislation.
HB 2081 will soon make its way to the floor of the Arizona House of Representatives for a vote from the full chamber.
Daniel Stefanski is a reporter for AZ Free News. You can send him news tips using this link.
Shares of big Danish offshore wind developer Orsted dropped by 17% Monday, the same day President Donald Trump took the oath of office to become the 47th president of the United States. The two events are not merely coincidental with one another.
To be sure, Orsted’s loss of market cap was caused by several factors, including both the general slowing of the offshore wind business, and Orsted’s own announcement that it will incur a $1.69 billion impairment charge related to its Sunrise Wind project off the coast of New York. Company CEO Mads Nipper attributed the charge to delays and cost increases and said the project completion date is now delayed to the second half of 2027.
But there can be little doubt that the raft of energy-related executive orders signed by Trump also contributed to the drop in Orsted’s stock price. As part of a Day 1 agenda consisting of a reported 196 executive orders, the new president took dead aim at reversing the Biden Green New Deal agenda in general, with a special focus on wind power projects on federal lands and waters.
In addition to general orders declaring a national energy emergency and pulling the United States out of the Paris Climate Accords (for a second time), Trump signed a separate order titled, “Temporary Withdrawal of All Areas on the Outer Continental Shelf from Offshore Wind Leasing and Review of the Federal Government’s Leasing and Permitting Practices for Wind Projects.” That long-winded title (pardon the pun) is quite descriptive of what the order is designed to accomplish.
Section 1 of this order withdraws “from disposition for wind energy leasing all areas within the Offshore Continental Shelf (OCS) as defined in section 2 of the Outer Continental Shelf Lands Act (OCSLA), 43 U.S.C. 1331.” Somewhat ironically, this is the same OCSLA cited in early January by former President Joe Biden when he set 625 million acres of federal offshore waters off limits to oil and gas leasing and drilling into perpetuity.
As with Biden’s LNG permitting pause, the fourth paragraph of Section 1 in Trump’s order states that “Nothing in this withdrawal affects rights under existing leases in the withdrawn areas.” However, the same paragraph goes on to subject those existing leases to review by the secretary of the Interior, who is charged with conducting “a comprehensive review of the ecological, economic, and environmental necessity of terminating or amending any existing wind energy leases, identifying any legal bases for such removal, and submit a report with recommendations to the President, through the Assistant to the President for Economic Policy.”
Observant readers will know that the parameters of this order as it relates to offshore wind are essentially the same as a proposal I suggested in a previous piece here on Jan. 1. So, obviously, it receives the Blackmon Seal of Approval.
But we should also note that Trump goes even further, extending this freeze to onshore wind projects as well. While the rationale for the freeze in offshore leasing and permitting cites factors unique to the offshore like harm to marine mammals, ocean currents and the marine fishing industry, the rationale supporting the onshore freeze cites “environmental impact and cost to surrounding communities of defunct and idle windmills and deliver a report to the President, through the Assistant to the President for Economic Policy, with their findings and recommended authorities to require the removal of such windmills.”
This gets at concerns long held by me and many others that neither the federal government nor any state government has seen fit to require the proper, complete tear down and safe disposal of these massive wind turbines, blades, towers and foundations once they outlive their useful lives. In most jurisdictions, wind operators are free to just abandon the projects and leave the equipment to dilapidate and rot.
The dirty secret of the wind industry, whether onshore or offshore, is that it is not sustainable without consistent new injections of more and more subsidies, along with the tacit refusal by governments to properly regulate its operations. Trump and his team understand this reality and should be applauded for taking real action to address it.
David Blackmon is a contributor to The Daily Caller News Foundation, an energy writer, and consultant based in Texas. He spent 40 years in the oil and gas business, where he specialized in public policy and communications.
Attorney General Kris Mayes signed onto a lawsuit with other Democratic attorneys general against President Donald Trump’s executive order ending birthright citizenship.
Mayes called the order “unconstitutional” in a press release published Tuesday.
“No executive order can supersede the United States Constitution and over 150 years of settled law,” said Mayes. “While President Trump may want to take this nation back to a time before all American citizens were treated equally under the law – we will not allow him to do so.”
Mayes defended the modern interpretation of birthright citizenship — which inspired popularity of the pejorative “anchor baby” — as an accurate reading of the Fourteenth Amendment. Mayes cited the 1898 Supreme Court landmark decision in United States v. Wong Kim Ark.
In its ruling, the court declared that the defendant, Wong Kim Ark, had obtained citizenship through his birth on U.S. soil to parents who were legally residing in the U.S. but not citizens, and that those subject to U.S. jurisdiction apply to all domiciled within the country. The ruling remains precedent.
“Every person born in the United States, and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, becomes at once a citizen of the United States, and needs no naturalization,” ruled the court.
Mayes’ lawsuit against the Trump administration estimated there were about 255,000 children born in the U.S. to illegal immigrant mothers and about 153,000 children born to illegal immigrant parents in 2022. In Arizona that year, the lawsuit reported those numbers to be around 6,000 children born to illegal immigrant mothers and around 3,400 children born to illegal immigrant parents. Based on those latest totals, the lawsuit estimated that there are over 12,000 children born to illegal immigrants every month throughout the nation.
Additionally, Mayes’ lawsuit argued that the end to birthright citizenship for children born to illegal immigrant parents would harm Arizona and other states because they would lose federal funding.
Joining Arizona in this lawsuit against the Trump administration in the Washington Western District Court are Washington, Illinois, and Oregon.
The lawsuit is a separate one from another joint lawsuit filed earlier this week in the Massachusetts District Court by 18 states, along with Washington, D.C. and both the city and county of San Francisco: New Jersey, Massachusetts, California, Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, Hawaii, Maine, Maryland, Michigan, Minnesota, Nevada, New Mexico, New York, North Carolina, Rhode Island, Vermont, and Wisconsin.
In his executive order, “Protecting the Meaning and Value of American Citizenship,” Trump asserted that the Fourteenth Amendment never interpreted the extension of citizenship universally to all born within the U.S., highlighting the provision excluding those “not subject to the jurisdiction thereof.”
Those that lack subjection to U.S. jurisdiction, the order says, include any individual whose mother was unlawfully present in the country and whose father wasn’t a citizen or lawful permanent resident at the time of their birth, or; any individual whose mother’s presence in the country at the time of their birth was lawful but temporary, and whose father wasn’t a citizen or lawful permanent resident at the time of their birth. For the latter case, “lawful but temporary” means those eligible to reside in the country under the Visa Waiver Program or those visiting on a student, work, or tourist visa.
The executive order is not retroactive. The order only applies to those born 30 days after the order’s issuance: February 19, 2025.
AZ Free News is your #1 source for Arizona news and politics. You can send us news tips using this link.
America is now drowning in $36 trillion in federal debt.
While past efforts to reform our nation’s finances have failed, Washington, D.C. will have a new sheriff in town after Jan. 20, leading a posse with plans to take the bold steps necessary to clean up our fiscal mess. To achieve different results compared to past efforts will require Republican unity.
Thankfully, President-elect Donald Trump’s plan to restore America’s economic stability has close allies in Congress. In an interview with the Daily Caller News Foundation, Republican Kentucky Rep. James Comer, chairman of the House Oversight Committee, outlined his new Subcommittee on Delivering on Government Efficiency (DOGE), led by Republican Georgia Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene.
“I don’t think there’s going to be any shortage of waste, fraud and abuse for that subcommittee to investigate,” Comer said.
Comer said DOGE will find healthcare savings, through reducing Medicare fraud and reforming areas like pharmaceutical patents and pharmacy benefit managers.
“One of the things I would encourage those to do — in this administration and Pam Bondi — we need to encourage our U.S. attorneys to focus more on Medicare and Medicaid fraud,” Comer said. “It’s not a priority for a lot of jurisdictions, and that’s something that needs to be a priority.”
Comer said Congress will adopt DOGE cuts through a legislative process known as “reconciliation” that doesn’t require a 60-vote threshold in the Senate.
“You’ve got to do it on reconciliation, because you’ll never get 60 votes,” Comer said. “Democrats don’t want to cut anything, right? Nothing.”
Comer’s DOGE bears a similar name to Trump’s Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), which will be run by Elon Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy.
Trump’s DOGE has set its own deadline at July 4, 2026 (America’s 150th birthday). Comer said he plans to keep his DOGE subcommittee throughout the entire 119th Congress, which ends in January 2027.
Ramaswamy told Fox News’ Maria Bartiromo that DOGE is “the greatest effort to downsize government in our lifetime” and that, “We expect certain agencies to be deleted outright.”
Comer said the Department of Education is a prime example of a duplicative federal bureaucracy that has outlived its usefulness.
He said it is duplicative because each state has its own Education Department. Comer said it’s better to cut out the middleman and send federal education funding directly to the states in the form of block grants. Federal student loans can be administered by the Treasury Department.
Comer said he would love to bring Democrats on board, but he is no Pollyanna.
“I have yet to meet a Democrat in Congress that’s concerned about $36 trillion debt, that’s concerned about Social Security running out of money,” Comer said. “There may be one, but I haven’t met them or they’re very secretive on their opinions.”
This can’t wait any longer.
Our debt-to-GDP ratio, e.g. the size of our debt compared to our productive economy, was less than 31 percent in 1980, growing to nearly 57 percent by 2000 and mushrooming to 120 percent today, according to the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis. This is unsustainable and will bankrupt America’s future.
Conservatives have a golden opportunity to create a generational shift in America’s fiscal future. The only way these massive spending reforms will take place is if Republicans remain unified.
During Trump’s “off-season,” he garnered a fairly successful track record in primarying squishier Republicans who would be far less likely to use the political muscle we need to stop our fiscal drift. Comer is confident that Trump’s cost-saving agenda will pass, thanks to GOP unity.
“Obviously, I can only speak for the House,” Comer said. “We can get, I think, just about everything they want, passed out of the House.”
We’ve become awash in feckless spending, unmoored by excessive COVID-19 stimulus packages (riddled with fraud), followed by more in Green New Deal scams and pet project giveaways.
Trump and congressional Republicans earned a powerful mandate to rein in government spending, which will also lower inflation. It’s what the American people desire and deserve.
The inauguration of President Donald Trump as the 47th President of the United States was the most prominent over-arching news story of the day on Monday. The reactions of Arizona’s elected leaders ranged from joy, excitement, and relief to cautious rapprochement, vehement rejection, petulant accusations, and denial.
Support for Trump by Republican members of Congress and other prominent figures has been consistent in Arizona, while unexpectedly some Democrats have taken a moderate, even conciliatory stance toward the President.
Tucson-area Republican Congressman Juan Ciscomani posted from within the Rotunda writing, “Honored to attend the inauguration of our 47th President — Donald J. Trump! And I look forward to working together and delivering for the American people[.] Congratulations, President Trump!”
Honored to attend the inauguration of our 47th President — Donald J. Trump! And I look forward to working together and delivering for the American people 🇺🇸
In a subsequent ‘selfie’ with Trump, Ciscomani quoted the President’s inaugural address writing, “’In America, the impossible is what we do best.’ —President Donald J. Trump [.] Now we get to work fighting for the American Dream!”
“In America, the impossible is what we do best.” —President Donald J. Trump
Rep. Paul Gosar (R-AZ-09) posted to the social network writing, “It’s a new day in America. Our long nightmare is soon over. 4 yrs of divisiveness, failures, corruption, weakness will be replaced w/ hope, strength, prosperity & American greatness. I look forward to working w/Pres Trump 2 make the future of this great country great, once again.”
Congressman Greg Stanton (D-AZ-04) told AZCentral, “As President Trump retakes office, here’s my promise: I’ll work to find common ground when it’s in Arizona’s best interest.” Stanton emphasized that he would remain loyal to the “fundamental freedoms,” of Arizonans.
District 5 Republican Andy Biggs, who announced his exploration of a gubernatorial run on Tuesday, posted “Hail to the Chief,” and told Trump, “Welcome back, Mr. President.”
Freshman Republican Rep. Abe Hamadeh appeared with Trump’s Voice of America Director Designee Kari Lake in a Newsmax spot during the President’s arrival at St. John’s Episcopal Church. He shared video to X writing, “We will pass President Trump’s America First Agenda as quickly as possible.”
Congressman Abe Hamadeh: “We will pass President Trump’s America First Agenda as quickly as possible.” pic.twitter.com/8ZBM3DgUjF
During the inaugural festivities, District 4 Rep. Eli Crane wrote, “We made it. Today is January 20th, and Donald J. Trump will be sworn in as President of the United States. The greatest political comeback of all time. Now the real work begins. Let’s go!”
He added a short panoramic video of the Capital Rotunda’s interior in the lead up to the ceremony adding, “So thankful to all of the Arizonans that put in the work to get to this moment.”
Took a quick selfie video of the rotunda ahead of President Trump's arrival.
So thankful to all of the Arizonans that put in the work to get to this moment. pic.twitter.com/fIOTT8hqHN
Meanwhile Freshman Democrat Rep. Yassamin Ansari ,who took the seat of now-Senator Ruben Gallego, blew off the inauguration, eschewing it for a Martin Luther King, Jr. Day event in Phoenix. Posting to X, Ansari derisively noted the attendance of big tech figures such as Meta’s Mark Zuckerberg, Amazon’s Jeff Bezos, X’s Elon Musk, and Google’s Sundar Pichai: “Nothing to see here… just Donald Trump’s inauguration… front row featuring the richest men on Earth excited to get even richer at the expense of working people.”
Nothing to see here… just Donald Trump's inauguration… front row featuring the richest men on Earth excited to get even richer at the expense of working people.
Follow Democrat Rep. Raúl Grijalva issued a call for his fellow radical leftists to resist Trump writing, “Democrats must stand up to Trump’s worst impulses and grifting tendencies if we are to come away from this a stronger, more prosperous nation.” He also criticized Trump for his recent successful meme-coin launch, calling it a “brazen and unethical money grab.”
President Trump has begun his four years with a grift on the American people by launching a cryptocurrency the night before his inauguration. This is a brazen and unethical money grab that will leave his unsuspecting supporters to pay the tab.
Pointedly, the Arizona Democratic Party (ADP) opted not to mark the inauguration at all with neither a post to social media nor a press release on its website. Rather, the ADP chose to publish a post honoring Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. almost as if in denial that the inauguration of Donald J. Trump as the 47th President of the United States happened.
