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I can hear the people circulating the petitions
feeding us the lie that this "isn't a new tax".
Well just what the f*ck is it then? They are liars because it is a new tax that wouldn't exist if he had not been made permanent! Campaign launched to make permanent 1-cent sales tax increase by Mary Jo Pitzl - Mar. 9, 2012 12:55 PM The Republic | azcentral.com A permanent 1-cent-per-dollar increase in the state sales tax would generate enough money to boost education programs, patch the state's social safety net and repair infrastructure, according to a plan that supporters are circulating to Arizona voters. The Quality Education and Jobs Act would create a 1-cent tax to begin when the temporary penny tax advocated by Gov. Jan Brewer and voters approved in 2010 expires next year. Supporters need the signatures of 172,809 voters to put the measure on the Nov. 6 ballot. They have less than four months to do so, but chaiman Ann-Eve Pedersen said she's confident the group can meet the goal through a combination of volunteer and paid petition passers. The challenge, she said, is getting enough money to cover the expenses of professional circulators. The measure would keep the state's sales tax at 6.6 cents per dollar, beginning when the temporary tax expires on May 31, 2013. The sales tax paid by consumers is higher, since purchases also reflect local and county sales taxes. In Phoenix, the tax is 9.3 cents per dollar; in some rural communities, the current combined rate is above 10 percent. Paperwork filed Friday with the Arizona Secretary of State outlines more than a dozen programs that would benefit from the revenue, estimated to be a minimum of $1 billion a year. Those programs include: • A dedicated fund for K-12 operations, to protect schools from legislative budget cuts. [That will get the teachers unions to vote for the tax] • Creation of performance-based funding, so money would flow to schools that meet certain benchmarks, such as test scores and third-grade reading proficiency. • Community college scholarships. [That will get the poor starving students to support the tax] • Adult education and the General Educational Diploma program, which provides the equivalent of high-school diplomas. [That will get the high school drop outs to support the tax] • Restoration of the KidsCare program, which provides health coverage to children from low-income families. The state froze the program two years ago, citing budget woes. The federal government provides a 3-for-1 match for state contributions to the program. [This will get poor people with kids to support the tax] • The Highway User Revenue Fund, which has been tapped for years to pay for other programs not intended for the fund. The ballot measure would protect this fund, allowing the dollars to be used for highway and road maintenance on both the state and local level. [This will get government bureaucrats who work on highways to support the tax] • A state infrastructure fund that would pay for new road, rail and transit projects. [This will get government employees that work on highways, along with bus drivers to support the tax] |