Republicans vote to hurt Arizona school kids, reward giant corporations

Arizona House Republicans voted today to reward big companies with tax breaks while stripping school funding from future budgets.

"This short-sighted, ideological vote hurts Arizona families and helps giant corporations," said Emily Bittner, spokeswoman for the Arizona Democratic Party. "Republicans are taking money out of classrooms and putting it right in the hands of big corporations. No one in their right mind believes that's a smart investment in our future. And all this comes on top of their vow to halt school construction."

Democrats say the measure is fiscal insanity - not only for future investments in our children, but also in the short term. The vote comes in the face of a $1.2 billion budget shortfall for the current fiscal year, and an additional $1.7 billion in the next fiscal year.

"Enacting this tax cut would be like realizing you don't have enough money to pay your mortgage and then quitting your job," Bittner said. "That's not the kind of math that our kids should learn." 

Republicans promised when the tax suspension was enacted two years ago that it would be suspended for three years.

"Now they're going back on their word and pushing for new cuts, at the worst possible time," Bittner said, noting that the tax doesn't sunset until next year. "They're turning a blind eye to the needs of this state in their pursuit of a nonsensical ideological agenda that will hurt our children. Let's get back to work on the real issues facing us right now."

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