Want to Win Races in AZ? Get on Board with Building Back Better

From an AZ Center for Economic Progress press release:

Arizona Center for Economic Progress and Americans for Tax Fairness recently released new polling showing that Arizonans overwhelmingly support paying for the critical needs of the state’s working families by ensuring the wealthy and corporations pay their fair share in taxes. The polling comes as the U.S. Senate this week begins debating and voting on President Biden’s $3.5 trillion Build Back Better plan, which would make healthcare, eldercare, childcare, education, and housing more affordable for working families. It is primarily paid for by raising taxes on the rich and corporations. People making less than $400,000 a year will not pay more in taxes.

The poll comes out as Senators Kyrsten Sinema and Mark Kelly prepare to vote on the Senate budget resolution, which will empower lawmakers to begin the budget reconciliation process allowing Biden’s Build Back Better plan to pass with 50 votes.

The groups also released a letter signed by 19 state groups to Arizona’s congressional delegation supporting President Biden’s Build Back Better plan of new investments primarily financed by raising taxes on the wealthy and corporations.

Cynthia Zwick, Executive Director of Wildfire AZ, stated, “By enacting President Biden’s Build Back Better proposals, Congress will level the playing field by creating critical opportunities for low-and-moderate income men, women and families to move from struggling to survive to being able to thrive. These sound financial investments will establish and nurture a critical broad-based infrastructure for life and living that has not been easily accessible to so many who are working so hard on behalf of themselves and their families.”

The Arizona poll conducted July 13-19 by Hart Research and ALG Research surveyed 500 registered voters with a 4.5% margin of error. Its key findings include:

• “Ensuring that the wealthy and corporations pay their fair share in taxes” is a top priority for Arizona voters today, even ahead of important goals like “creating jobs” and “rebuilding America’s infrastructure,” and ahead of “reducing the national debt.”
• Two-thirds (65%) of Arizona voters support President Biden’s American Families Plan, which is essentially Biden’s Build Back Better Plan, and 68% see his proposals to raise taxes on the wealthy and corporations as a strong reason to support it.
• Biden’s proposals to raise taxes on those making over $400,000 meet with wide approval (71% support) in Arizona, including his proposal to tax capital gains at the same rate as income from wages (61% support). Arizona voters believe that raising taxes on those earning $400,000 or more will help the economy by a 35-point margin.
• Increasing the corporate tax rate to 28% is embraced by 62% of Arizona voters, who also favor taxing foreign profits at 28% (66% support), and setting a minimum corporate tax rate of 15% (69% support).
• The voters of Arizona would go even further than President Biden in raising taxes on the wealthy, embracing proposals to establish a wealth tax (72% support), expand the estate tax (62% support), and apply the estate tax to estates valued at $3.5 million (60% support) – currently only estates valued above $11.7 million are taxed.
• Swing voters in next year’s congressional election are particularly motivated by tax fairness concerns and consistently support progressive tax policies at a higher level than the electorate overall.

You can find a detailed memo from Hart Research and ALG Research here. A PowerPoint deck is here.

“This poll shows Arizona voters overwhelmingly support President Biden’s Build Back Better Plan, and that support grows even stronger when they learn it is paid for by making the rich and corporations pay their fair share of taxes,” said Frank Clemente, Executive Director of Americans for Tax Fairness. “The Biden plan will help working families struggling with the high costs of healthcare, burdened by high rent payments or trying to afford college, by asking those who have done extremely well during the pandemic to start paying their fair share.”

Any politician in Arizona who will be seeking nomination and/or election or re-election in Arizona should keep these polling numbers in mind. The Biden agenda is not just popular; it is wildly popular. Stopping or impeding progress, especially by a Democrat, will result in electoral defeat. The voters have a long memory, and we here at BlogForArizona will be certain to remind them in ’22 and ’24.