Invest in Arizona Coalition Rallies Supporters at Emergency Townhall Meeting to Help Halt Tax Cut Special Session

The will of the people does not matter to most Republicans.

Especially with regards to all things related to public education and helping the disadvantaged.

Despite the voters saying no, they have continually looked for ways to resurrect the expansion of school vouchers.

Despite the voters saying yes, they used their obstruction in permanently removing the state expenditure cap for public school spending to steer the courts to finding Invest in Education-Proposition 208 was unconstitutional.

Now, despite the people calling for a vote, via the Proposition 307 ballot initiative next November, to decide the fate of the gift to the rich flat tax scheme the Republicans passed last year, the Ducey Administration and his allies in the State Legislature, knowing the people are probably not going to support their extreme trickle down ideas, are looking again to stymie the will of the voters by calling a special session to repeal and replace the bad tax cuts with even more bad tax cuts.

Seeing the disaster that is coming to the State Capitol, the Invest in Arizona coalition, comprised of SOS Arizona, the Arizona Education Association, Stand for Children Arizona, the Arizona School Board’s Association, the Arizona Interfaith Network, the Arizona Center for Economic Progress, and Children’s Action Alliance, called for an emergency virtual townhall on May 21, 2022 to rally support to speak out against the looming special session and other anti-public school measures making their way through the legislature.

Please click on the video link below to watch the townhall.

 

The guest speakers were Beth Lewis (Save our Schools,) Marisol Garcia (AEA,) Rebecca Gau (Stand for Children,) Chris Kotterman (Arizona School Board,) David Lujan (Arizona Center and Children’s Action,) and Joe Rubio (Arizona Interfaith.)

Mr. Rubio was the one (about nine minutes into the meeting) that outlined the dangers of the special session most succinctly. If Republicans are successful in getting away with going around the will of the voters with replacing their bad tax cuts  with more bad tax cuts, then:

• It will be a slap in the face on the Democratic initiative process.
• It could gut future Arizona budgets, especially in the areas of public education and assistance to the middle class and disadvantaged.
• The ability to intervene during economic downtimes would be seriously compromised.

At the end of the townhall, the guest speakers called on everyone to act by attending committee meetings at the Capitol, contact lawmakers, especially the Republican ones and call on them to not repeal and replace any flat tax, and alert the media on what the Legislature is planning to do.

The Republican tax cut schemes, like their short sighted and malicious stance toward Invest in Ed and Voucher expansion will do nothing to help the people, especially the children, of Arizona.

It will not move the state forward and could in fact, set the stage for future economic disasters like Kansas found out when they tried a similar approach several years ago.

History should not have to repeat itself given everyone knows what will happen when these tax cuts eventually will implode the state budget.

CONTACT all legislators (Republican and Democratic) and tell them not to support the special session.  Tell them to not enact this latest supply side riverboat gamble that everyone knows will hurt the Grand Canyon State.

Stop this insanity now before it could inflict more socio-economic damage on Arizona and its residents.