When the discussion of how to fund infrastructure, education, city services, or even renovations to baseball stadiums is ever discussed, most "Republicans" across the nation and in Arizona almost always try to shift the pain to the middle and lower classes from their patrons in the one percent.
Take Infrastructure. As has been reported by many media outlets, "Republicans" are whining all over the halls of Congress about how unfair it is to pay for the American Jobs Plan with tax increases on large corporations and individuals/families that make over $400,000.
Why do the members of the former Party of Lincoln not understand that the wealthiest also have a responsibility to help pay to revitalize the nation's roads, highways, rail, shipping lanes, airports, water pipes, broadband, and human needs.
The "Republican" solution on how to fund infrastructure or their narrow mid 20th Century definition of it. Increase user fees like gas taxes that will impact middle and lower-class individuals and businesses more than their plutocratic and large corporate sponsors. To be fair, any infrastructure bill will probably be paid by a combination of user fees along with increased taxes on the wealthy and large corporations.
Then there is how to pay for fully funding public education which Arizona has not done in almost 13 years.
That is why the people voted for the Invest in Education-Proposition 208 ballot initiative in November 2020.
Of course, most of the wealthiest and their right-wing fringe "public" servants in the legislature started to moan and groan about the inevitable small withdrawals from their bank accounts ($35 for every $1000 after the first $250,000) that they would have to use to pay to help better fund Arizona's public schools.
Heaven forbid the richest in Arizona should pay a small surcharge after their first $250,000 of earnings into the Proposition 208/Invest in Ed fund.
Arizona "Republican" legislators have been toying with bills to create a carve-out for those wealthiest by proposing a bill (SB1783) that allows the people who would pay the most into the Invest in Ed fund to avoid that by declaring themselves a small business.
These are the same "Republican" legislators that have crafted legislation to make it easier for these same rich people, through expanded voucher empowerment scholarship accounts, to send their children, as tuition-free as possible, to private religious schools.
They are also the regressive public servants who are considering substituting the current state tax system with a flat tax one.
A conservative fiscal fantasy for decades, if the supply side voodoo economic reactionaries are able to pass a flat tax in the State Legislature, the wealthiest will again benefit while the middle and lower classes shoulder more of the burden and local city services like law enforcement could face budget cuts.
The Mayors of Tucson and Flagstaff commented on the prospects of an Arizona Flat Tax System.
Tucson Mayor Regina Romero relayed:
"This proposal would be very harmful to the core services that local governments provide our residents, including public safety, infrastructure, and parks & recreation. Moreover, it is fiscally irresponsible to use one-time revenue sources like the CARES Act and American Rescue Plan to fund permanent tax cuts."
Flagstaff Mayor Paul Deasy wrote:
"This (flat tax) would have significant impacts on the amount of shared income tax that the City receives from the State. If a three-year phase-in period were used, negative impacts to the City would be approximately $1M in FY24, $2M in FY25, $3M in FY26, and continue at $3M each year thereafter. As one of the Council’s primary legislative priorities is to protect and recover state shared revenues, we are actively opposing this proposed tax cut."
Then there is what to do about baseball stadiums like The Arizona Diamondback's Chase Field.
[caption id="attachment_107923" align="alignright" width="434"]
Photo from MLB[/caption]One would think that a ballpark named after a major bank would not need to ask their fans (again mostly middle and lower class people) to help pay for the maintenance and repair of the stadium.
As reported by AZ Central's Laurie Roberts, the Arizona State Senate passed legislation that would allow the Arizona Diamondbacks to tax tickets to ball games nine percent to help finance stadium improvements.
The State will also allow the Diamondbacks to piggyback off their credit rating to secure low-interest bond financing for more extensive renovations.
This is in addition to the favorable gambling concessions the baseball team, in addition to the other professional sports organizations in the Grand Canyon State received with the new gaming compact with the Native American nations in Arizona.
This gives the term play ball a new meaning.
When voters go to the polls in 2022 and 2024, remember which party represented the socio-economic interests of the middle and lower classes.
Need a hint?
It is not the former Party of Lincoln despite whatever claims they make to be looking out for the working class.
It is another Big Lie.
Need proof.
Just visit the United States House, Senate, and the Arizona Legislature sites and see the tax measures Republican legislators are proposing and either what groups get saddled with the bill or what programs that benefit the middle and lower classes get cut because there are no revenues to pay for them.
The rich did well when the tax rate for them was around 90 percent from the Franklin Roosevelt to the Dwight Eisenhower Administrations.
[caption id="attachment_107918" align="alignnone" width="500"]
From the Washington Post[/caption]They did well when the tax rate was about 70 percent during the Nixon years.
They prospered even after the Clinton and Obama Administrations raised their taxes in 1993 and 2013.
There is no reason, despite the big lie and disproven (during the Clinton and Obama Presidencies) Republican broken record talking points about killing economic activity and competitiveness, that the rich will not still thrive when the Biden/Harris Administration raises theirs again at the federal level or when measures like Proposition 208 in Arizona fully go into effect.
It is just a historical fact.
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