By Rachel Leingang and Ben Giles | Arizona Capitol Times
Gov. Doug Ducey leveled an unprecedented threat to Arizona cities in his State of the State address: Create a patchwork of laws that conflict with the state’s interest, and you’ll pay for it.
Republican legislators followed suit, proposing and passing laws dinging cities on employee benefits, pet store regulations, plastic bag bans and business improvement districts.
But perhaps the biggest swat stemmed from Ducey’s address and the financial threat the governor followed through on. The new law takes aim at state-shared revenue, the money parsed back out to cities, towns and counties from taxes collected at the state level. If cities pass laws that conflict with state regulations, they could lose that funding, the law says.
