The Rev. Jeff Proctor-Murphy, a member of the coalition that is seeking to get voters to overturn lax cuts approved by GOP lawmakers, said Tuesday if it is allowed to stand they will harm not just education but health and other programs. /Capitol Media Services photo by Howard Fischer
By Howard Fischer | Capitol Media Services
It looks like Arizona voters are going to get the last word on a $1.5 billion tax cut approved by Republican lawmakers and signed by Gov. Doug Ducey.
Education advocates and their allies turned in petitions Tuesday with what they said are 215,787 signatures to force a public vote on the GOP plan to scrap the state’s progressive income tax structure in favor of a flat tax. That plan reserves the biggest benefits to individuals with a taxable income of more than $159,000 a year.
More to the point, supporters of the ballot measure said it will protect not just funding for education but also other programs.
Tuesday’s filing is just the first step.
Secretary of State Katie Hobbs now has to send a random sample of the signatures to the recorders in each of the counties from which they came. That sampling will determine if the final tally is at least the 118,823 names necessary to force a public vote.
And the business-oriented Arizona Free Enterprise Club already has filed suit, contending that voters have no right to second-guess decisions of the legislature about taxes. A hearing on that is scheduled for next month in Maricopa County Superior Court.
But if the petition drive is upheld, it immediately suspends the tax cut until it can go to voters who will decide whether to ratify what lawmakers enacted or reject it. And that cannot occur until November 2022.
