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Fred DuVal on Tax Reform |
A: Eliminating the state income tax is bad math, bad budgeting and a truly bad deal for our children's education. Simply put, eliminating the state income tax would force us to close schools. Eliminating the state income tax would cut nearly $4 billion out of our $9 billion budget. After the devastating education cuts during the recession, our children's schools couldn't sustain the additional cuts from eliminating the income tax.
A: We need low, competitive taxes and in recent years, Arizona has moved in that direction, to where most businesses will say the tax situation here is very favorable. It's about as favorable as anywhere in the country. What they're looking for is workforce, so we've got to focus on that. I see the streamlining of the state's complex sales-tax system is the hot topic now and I think will be resolved in a compelling and smart way. We've got to simplify the sales tax. Secondly, we've got, in parts of our tax code, sort of antiquated taxes and antiquated exemptions. I think we need to bring our overall system into the 21st century.
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