Year: 2018

Another opinion against Prop. 126

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I was the first to sound the alarm and urge a no vote on Prop. 126. No on Prop. 126, the false and purposefully misleading Protect Arizona Taxpayers Act.

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Today Abe Kwok of The Arizona Republic adds his voice in opposition to Prop. 126. Ban taxes on services? Sounds good, but it could make education funding even tougher:

This being the year of Red for Ed, a tax-the-rich proposal to better fund teacher pay has garnered intense scrutiny.

Makes sense.

There is, however, a second ballot measure involving taxes that deserves equal attention: a proposed constitutional amendment dubbed the Protect Arizona Taxpayers Act.

The initiative doesn’t address education funding, per se, but it certainly would close off an option to tap new revenue and to make our tax system broader and fairer.

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Arizona Citizens Clean Elections general election debate schedule

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The Arizona Citizens Clean Elections Commission general election debate schedule is currently posted at its website under the calendar tag. This schedule is subject to change, so please remember to check the Commission’s web site to verify the scheduled date before  a debate.

Please be sure to attend in support of your candidates and to submit your questions to the candidates,

Legislative Districts

Tuesday, September 4,6:00 p.m.: LD 19 Clean Elections debate, at the Hilton Garden Inn – Avondale, 11460 W. Hilton Way, Avondale, AZ 85323.

Wednesday, September 5, 6:00 p.m.: LD 28 Clean Elections debate, at the Pointe Hilton Squaw Peak – Phoenix, 7677 N. 16th Street, Phoenix, AZ 85020.

Thursday, September 6, 6:00 p.m.: LD 23 Clean Elections debate, at the Hilton Resort – Scottsdale, 6333 N. Scottsdale Road, Scottsdale, AZ 85250.

Friday, September 7, 6:00 p.m.: LD 18 Clean Elections debate, at the Four Points by Sheraton South Mountain – Chandler, 10831 S. 51st Street, Phoenix, AZ 85044.

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Judge Denies APS-Backed Challenge To Clean Energy Signatures; On To The Supreme Court (READ Opinion)

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Maricopa County Superior Court Judge Daniel Kiley today denied an effort by an APS-backed effort – along with the Chamber of Commerce and some lawmakers – to knock the Clean Energy initiative off of the November ballot. An APS representative has already indicated that an appeal to the Arizona Supreme Court is coming.

(The 33 page ruling is published in full below.)

After a five-day trial, Judge Kiley found that most of the challenges by Arizonans for Affordable Energy were not proven and/or appropriate. The group had claimed that only 22% of the submitted signatures should be considered valid, which would have left Clean Energy for a Healthy Arizona considerably short of the 225k signature threshold.

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Strike Fast Food

The Arithmetic of the CEO-Worker Pay Divide

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[Cross-posted from Inequality.org]

Sometimes percentages alone don’t do justice to the injustice of corporate compensation.

The Economic Policy Institute reported earlier this month that the average CEO of the 350 largest firms in the U.S. pocketed $18.9 million in 2017, a 17.6 percent pay increase over 2016.

At the same time, typical worker compensation remained flat, rising merely 0.3 percent.

If you do some quick math, dividing 17.6 percent by 0.3 percent, you might conclude that CEO pay in 2017 increased about 60 times faster than worker pay.

But if you take a moment and do some more careful calculations, that CEO-worker pay gap will soar incredibly higher — to a CEO pay boost over 15,000 times the pay hike for workers.

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LWVGT’s Guide to Voting in Pima County

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Tomorrow is the Arizona Primary 2018 , with polls open 6 a.m. to 7 p.m.  Many have already voted early, being on the PEVL (Permanent Early Voting List).  If you don’t vote tomorrow, please mark your calendar for the November 6, 2018 General Election.  Up for re-election this year are the Arizona state officers (Governor … Read more