By Mike Sunnucks | Rose Law Group Reporter
Arizona Gov. Doug Ducey urged the business community and real estate industry to oppose a proposed ballot question that would raise state income taxes on the wealthy.
“I will be working very hard against it,” Ducey told the Valley Partnership real estate group Friday morning in Phoenix. “It’s a bad idea.”
The proposed ballot measure would impose an extra 3.5 percent income tax on singles making $250,000 and couples making $500,000. The $940 million raised from the tax would be put towards public education including teacher raises.
Ducey said his budget already allocates additional money for K-12 schools and the tax increase would hurt Arizona’s economic development and business attraction efforts.
The governor said a tax increase would hurt Arizona’s economic development pipeline and discourage job growth and business investment.
“The last thing we need to do is to start raising taxes in this state,” Ducey said.
Ducey also talked about water issues at the morning forum at the Phoenix Country Club. Ducey said water (as well as a potential new gaming compact with Native American tribes) are heavy lifts. But he said Arizona’s water policies have been an international model. “This is not a Western water crisis,” Ducey said of regional concerns about past droughts and long-term water supplies. “This is a California water crisis.”
Ducey said California has not planned as well for water and growth compared to Arizona.
“We use less water today in Arizona than in 1959,” Ducey told the real estate group.
The Republican governor said he would also like to craft a new gaming compact during his second term and potentially this legislative session. That requires a deal brokered with the Legislature as well as Arizona’s Native American tribes.
