Prop 208 Blowback: An Arizona Property Tax Revolt

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Property taxes & state monies aren’t enough to fund Public Education: we must have MOAR!”

I’m going on record here with a prediction:  Prop 208’s passage will start the MOAAT-R (“motor”).  The Mother of all Arizona Tax-Revolts.  It will be a property-tax revolt.

People are badly fed-up with the whole stupid idea of property taxes as “rent you pay to the government for the right to own your home”.   And especially not, after seeing any real payback?? …except the loss of jobs, small business destruction, and corporate downsizing, courtesy of the ‘Rona.

Here’s what the passage of the Prop 208 Wealth Tax is really about: POWER, and the Hard-Left’s takeover of the AZ government employment scheme known as “Public Education”.

Anyone foolishly naïve enough to think this ‘is all about the kids’, hasn’t been paying attention the last 25 years.  It’s the proverbial ‘Boiling Bullfrog Syndrome’, writ large.

Public education in America has become a gigantic industry.  The operating FY2018 National Association of State Budget Officers’ report—shows K-12, as a yearly industry at almost a $1 trillion, coming in at $868.4 BILLION.  Let me repeat… every year.

In most states it is more than 50% of the entire state budget; US states spent $295 billion on K-12 from their general funds (i.e. non-local $) in FY 2018.  This doesn’t include large capital expenditures (buildings, large equipment, etc.) they went into debt for locally.

But like Margaret Thatcher once wisely observed, “sooner or later they run out of OPM, other peoples’ money”.

Arizona, it’s time to explore some alternative paths, like other Western states have done by the same kind of constitutional amendment ballot-initiative.  It’s the favored legal tool of Red-for-Ed, and their out-of-state, Hard-Left, big money supporters.  Why can’t we use it too?

For instance: Idaho forbids passage of local public school bonds with any vote less than a supermajority (66.7%).  Makes ‘em tight with a buck, and stretches resources.  Voters love it.

Colorado has a great property tax law: if you’re over 60 and have lived as a CO resident in your own primary residence for at least 10 years = zero property taxes.  Voters love it.

Maybe this time, Arizona’s many Chambers of Commerce, elitist biz groups, and supposedly “Pro-Business” organizations—-will finally get it… the Hard-Left is in control, not our legislature, and evidently, now MAKES ARIZONA INCOME TAX LAW!

Cuisses de grenouilles (froglegs), anyone?

Sellers is a South Park Republican who lives in incorporated Oro Valley.  His background is federal tech-transfer commercialization. He is on Facebook.

About Bill Sellers 105 Articles
Sellers is a South Park Republican who lives in incorporated Oro Valley. His background is federal tech-transfer commercialization. Contact him at readbill19@usa.net Sellers is also a grad of Clemson's Architecture School and the University of NC School of Business. He was a founding member of the Albuquerque Friday Morning Breakfast Group which elected numerous conservatives. He has lived in the SouthWest & PacNorthWest more than 40 yrs.