G.I. walks back a big lie, but not nearly far enough

by David Safier

Today we're going back to the Goldwater Institute's total disconnect with the truth about the one cent sales tax hike.

On the John C. Scott show a little over a month ago, G.I. President and CEO Darcy Olsen said the one cent sales tax hike "would cost the average Arizona family about $600 a year."

Let's recall how wrong she was back then. To spend $600 for a one cent per dollar tax hike, a family would have to spend $60,000 on sales taxed items. First, that's more than the average Arizona family income, and second, families don't spend anywhere near all their income of items that carry a sales tax.

Olsen's $600 is a ridiculous figure.

Le Templar, a reasonably new G.I. hire who was previously a journalist at the East Valley Trib, agrees with me that Olsen's figure is too high. In today's Daily Email, he says the one cent tax hike will cost $400 per family.

Here's the problem. While Le Templar is less wrong than Olsen, he's still pretty damn wrong.

Arizona's median household income is about $55,000, give or take a few thousand. I'm guessing the average is pretty close to that.

To spend $400 for a one sent sales tax increase, you would have to buy $40,000 in items carrying a sales tax.

That means $40,000 spent on items other than house payments or rent, food, services, memberships, and so on, none of which carries a sales tax. And let's not forget the amount of household income that goes toward state and federal income taxes, property taxes and withholding for Social Security.

Do you think 75% to 80% of a family's income goes to buy sales taxed items? Not even close. But that's what it would take for a family making about $55,000 to pay an extra $400 if the sales tax hike passes.

For tax purposes, the IRS estimate Arizonans only spend about 20-25% of their income on sales taxed items. Even if the Feds to it wrong and it was closer to 40%, a family's income would have to hit $100,000 before it spent an extra $400.

Even when the Goldwater Institute makes a correction, the best it can do is make the lie a little less blatant. How sad is that?

You'd almost think they do it on purpose.