We Won the Battle for an Arizona Flat Tax
The Arizona Legislature just approved the Goldwater Institute’s plan to dramatically reduce income taxes and simplify the state’s tax code, making Arizona one of the lowest-tax states in the country. This historic reform will restore Arizona’s competitive advantage as a low-tax state and provide a boost for small business owners still struggling to recover from the COVID pandemic.
This plan collapses Arizona’s pre-Prop. 208 tax rates into a single, low 2.5% rate, and it caps the maximum tax rate at 4.5%. This means that no one’s taxes will increase because of Prop. 208. In fact, everyone’s income taxes will go down as a result of this victory.
Additionally, the Goldwater Institute has challenged the constitutionality of Prop. 208, and we’re now awaiting a decision from the Arizona Supreme Court. Fortunately, this new tax reform measure will mitigate the negative effects of Prop. 208—which otherwise would have decimated our economy—and help ensure the state’s future economic success.
This reform also lays down significant groundwork toward ultimately eliminating the burdensome and regressive income tax altogether. Thanks to our past efforts, the Legislature can’t raise income taxes again in the future unless the governor and two-thirds of the legislature vote to do so.
This won’t be the last battle to stop the unions and other big government spenders from raising our taxes. But you can be sure that we will never back down in the fight for economic liberty.
Victor Riches is the President and CEO of the Goldwater Institute.
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This article was published on June 25, 2021 and republished with permission by the Goldwater Institute.
