State Government Issues & Policy Positions
The Chamber’s current state policy positions are all contained in the 2007 Legislative Agenda, which can be viewed here.
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Chamber had Positive Effect at State Legislature Last Year
The 2006 Legislature probably will be best remembered as the session that crept into June, but it should be better known as the session in which the largest tax cut in decades was passed.
The FY07 budget contained more than half a billion dollars worth of tax relief, with increased investments for education and transportation for all of Arizona.
The Tucson Chamber enjoyed a remarkable session, with most of its legislative goals achieved, some during the waning hours of the session. One of the Chamber’s showcase bills was HB 2177, which will reduce small business health care costs immediately. HB 2177 will give $5 million worth of health insurance vouchers to workers; these vouchers will range from $1,000 to $3,000 and act as coupons to buy private market insurance coverage. The Tucson Chamber thanks House Health Committee Chairman Doug Quelland (R-Phoenix) for his leadership and vision with this important bill. Both Chairman Quelland and the Tucson Chamber will be looking to beef up the amount of the program in coming years.
The Chamber was proud to stand shoulder-to-shoulder with the city of Tucson to extend the downtown Rio Nuevo revitalization tax structure. Downtown growth is nearly guaranteed now that the Legislature has OK’d a 12-year extension to our tax increment financing plan. TIF works like this: Sales tax dollars that would have been sent to Phoenix are now kept in downtown Tucson to fund infrastructure improvements to help private developers realize the goals of Rio Nuevo.
The Rio Nuevo legislation was dead in the water when Senate Majority Leader Tim Bee (R-Tucson) stepped in to rescue it from limbo in the Senate. The Tucson Chamber owes a salute to Sen. Bee, as well as Sen. Toni Hellon (R-Tucson) and the bill’s sponsor, Rep. Steve Huffman (R-Tucson) for their determination not to let this bill die.
Amendments to the Rio Nuevo bill will generate more than $500 million for downtown improvements and public amenities. This in itself will spur private development to change the face of our burgeoning downtown.
The income and property tax relief was signed into law by Gov. Napolitano in the final week of the session and breaks down like this:
- $310 million of permanent income tax relief (two 5 percent cuts over two years).
- $215 million of temporary property tax cuts (suspension of a state education property tax that equals a cut of about $1,800 for a business property valued at $1.5 million).
Almost as important as the tax cuts were the remarkable reforms put into the budget that were called for by the Chamber’s Board of Directors in January. In recent lean budget years, lawmakers routinely used budget gimmicks and tricks to balance the budget. One particularly onerous practice was to require that businesses submit early estimated tax payments to the state for the month of June. Because the state’s fiscal year begins on July 1, the state used the extra revenue to show that the budget was balanced. This practice is nowhere in the new budget.
Another goal of the Tucson Chamber was to “max out” the state’s rainy day fund. In a year that saw hundreds of millions of surplus tax dollars on hand, the rainy day fund is at its statutory limit. The Chamber salutes the legislative leadership team of House Speaker Jim Weiers (R-Phoenix) and Senate President Ken Bennett (R-Prescott) for their determination to produce an honestly balanced budget.
With the amazing surplus situation facing Arizona, legislators were able to invest in key areas, such as $345 million of highway and road construction spending and a $500 million increase for K-12 education, including statewide all day kindergarten.
