MAGA Republicans at the Arizona State Legislators are again pushing welfare for the wealthy again and State Democrats are calling them out on it.
Last month, State Republicans had little to no hesitation in pushing for funding cuts to programs that help disabled children and their caregivers, while saying no way to funding cuts in their cherished welfare for the wealthy Empowerment Scholarship Account Private School Voucher Program.
Now they want to help rich private jet owners with new tax exemptions at the expense of funding other vital needs like paying public school teachers what they are worth and needed road repairs.
Republicans at the State Capitol are also pushing measures to permanently enshrine welfare for the wealthy income tax reduction legislation whenever there is a budget surplus, and instruct the state and City of Phoenix to help fund repairs on Chase Ballpark, home of the Arizona Diamondbacks.
So much for using the surplus to fund schools, law enforcement, and affordable housing.
Those rich people need all the help they can get. The poor. They are just leeches to the system in the MAGA plutocratic world view when they are not looking at themselves in the mirror.
Arizona Legislative District 12 State Senator Mitzi Epstein railed against Republican tax giveaways to the state’s most affluent, arguing at the Senate Appropriations Committee last week that giving tax breaks for private jet owners should not take precedence over funding public schools and road repair.
In comments before that committee last week, Senator Epstein said:
“I gotta be honest, my colleagues (Democratic Senators) do not want to give another handout to private jet owners. This state just loves our private jet owners. The hangers are tax-free. The taxes to buy them are tax-free now. We want to have the repairs be tax-free. How many handouts to private jet owners does the state want to provide?… There is no reason on this Earth to give private jet owners a tax exemption from the repairs. None! Zero, except this state and my Republican colleagues who’ve been in the majority have a tradition and a series of tax giveaways that look like this. So I appreciate the idea of Dynamic Revenue, you have to think about the potential Revenue gain versus the loss. I wish my Republican colleagues would consider that when we consider the Department of Revenue, and making sure that we do collect all of the taxes that are owed. But when we consider that the Revenue cost versus a revenue gain, they don’t want to hear it. Oh, no. Because we should not go to those private Tech, those private jet owners and say, you know, you owe this much in taxes...And in this state, the private jet owners, keep winning and winning and winning and winning and the rest of us are losing and losing and losing as our teachers need more pay. Our roads need to be repaired. We have endless lists, wonderful, wonderful things that should be paid in this committee. And yet, we are giving away to private jet owners. No, absolutely, no.”
In a newsletter to her constiutents (full disclosure: I am one,) Epstein also called attention to SB1318, a MAGA proposal to reduce the taxes on the wealthiest, HB2704, the idea to fund repairs to Chase Field, and SB1509, a measure to give Elon Musk tax incentives so he could buy Starlink.
Commenting on these horrible welfare for the wealthy bills championed by the former party of fiscal responsibility, Senator Epstein wrote at the beginning of her newsletter:
“Three bills this year are symbolic of the way our tax system keeps getting worse for Charlie and Sophie on Main Street, as the giveaways go to the zillionaires. Private jet owners keep winning, and the rest of us keep losing, and losing. Billionaires keep getting special privileges, and the rest of us keep on being forced to pay them.:
It is indeed a sad situation when Chase Bank and the Diamondback owners cannot fund their own repairs and one of the world’s richest men, who is already lining his pockets every day he is advising his marionette Donald Trump, need Working and Middle Class hard-earning taxpayer dollars to fund their whims and desires.
Very sad indeed.
State Legislators should never be offering bills that steal from the poor and give to the rich.
Never.
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How on the great green earth can nonsensical tax breaks like this be justified? Even by blogger responder JK? Is he taking private jet rides like Thomas, Alito, and McCain?