Ready for another Arizona corporate tax cut?

by David Safier

Remember the corporate tax cuts passed by the Arizona Lege this year? Apparently they weren't nearly enough. According to the Capitol Times (subscription only) some Republicans want to call a special session this summer to pass more tax cuts for business (Screw a special session to help the unemployed! The business of the AZ legislature is business!). Others are willing to wait for the next session. But the bottom line is, these people think the last round of corporate tax cuts weren't nearly enough.

Of course, we have to remember, the reason for the tax cuts isn't to make the rich richer. It's to create jobs. How do I know? The rich, who will become richer, say so.

NOTE #1: Rep. Tom Forese, who is pushing the added tax cuts big time, is another one of those arrested adolescents who think that atheist and anti-Christian zealot Ayn Rand (see AZ Blue Meanie's post for examples of her godless philosophy) is god (I imagine Rand would agree). Forese said, in the print version of the Cap Times article, "We need to stimulate competition. You need to create this Ayn Rand place, (like) her 'Atlas Shrugged' book, where businesses can go and be part of the free market and compete freely." Um, Rep. Forese, English teachers like me often note that books like "Atlas Shrugged" are what is known as fiction, meaning they contain made-up characters and stories geared to manipulate the reader into feeling and thinking a certain way. They're not supposed to be real life.

NOTE #2: Jeremy Duda, who wrote the Cap Times article, insists on calling the corporate tax cuts which passed the legislature the "jobs bill," sometimes in quotes, sometimes without quotes. Even the Republicans didn't call it that. They called their legislation the Arizona Competitiveness Package. It's doubtful the tax cuts will result in a net increase in Arizona jobs.

Calling it the Competitiveness Bill is accurate, which Duda does once or twice. Calling it "corporate tax cut legislation," which he also does, once, is also accurate. But calling it a "jobs bill" four times (and that doesn't count the time the AZ Chamber of Commerce CEO calls it a "jobs package") is carrying water for the proponents of the tax cuts. When journalists incorporate loaded terminology created by lobbyists and politicians into their working vocabulary, they are moving away from reporting into unintentional — or possibly intentional — public relations work.