An effort by Invest in Arizona to refer a small business alternate income tax initiative to the ballot has failed. According to an attorney with the Secretary of State’s office, the Invest In Arizona group failed to get enough valid signatures.
Earlier this year, the Arizona Legislature passed tax cuts to protect small business owners and the pro-teacher’s union group began gathering signatures to refer both cuts to the ballot, in order to give the voters a chance to overturn the laws. The failure of the pro-teacher’s union group to submit enough signatures to refer one of two tax cuts to the ballot came to light during oral arguments in a lawsuit brought by the Free Enterprise Club. They had submitted signatures in September in an effort to refer S1783 (small businesses; alternate income tax) and S1828 (omnibus; taxation) to voters in 2022.
The Arizona Free Enterprise Club filed a lawsuit challenging the validity of over half the signatures Invest in Arizona submitted to the Secretary of State.
According to the Free Enterprise Club, “the political committee filed its campaign finance report, which shows “that the National Education Association (NEA) and Stand for Children, two out-of-state special interest groups, purchased the referendum against historic tax cuts that Republicans delivered earlier this year.”
The lack of sufficient public support for Invest in Arizona’s efforts means that one of the tax cuts will go into effect without additional delays. The outcome of the second measure is still uncertain.