GOP jobs bill sails through committee

A House panel on Jan. 25 forwarded a measure to the floor aimed at spurring job growth through incentives to large corporations and tax cuts, where it is scheduled to be debated by the entire body.

But Democrats on the Ways and Means Committee objected not only to what Republican House Speaker Kirk Adams proposes in the bill, but also to the lack of an analysis of the fiscal impact the measure will have on the state’s general fund.

“I want to know what the numbers are,” said Rep. Steve Farley, a Tucson Democrat.

Democrats attempted to prevent the committee from voting on H2550, but the motion to hold the bill until the fiscal analysis was complete was voted down by Republicans, who outnumber the Democrats 5-3.

While Democrats opposed the income- and property tax cuts included in the bill - the 10-percent cuts to income taxes and business property taxes would be phased in over several years, beginning in fiscal 2012 - Republicans touted their importance in making Arizona an attractive place for companies to expand or relocate.

Coupled with a host of new economic development tools, including tax incentives for businesses that create high-wage jobs, Adams said Arizona could once again become competitive in attracting new companies.

“That is…what we’ve been missing in our economic strategy in Arizona,” he told the committee in a Jan. 25 hearing.

Democratic leaders, though, equated the tax cuts and incentives to the Wall Street bailouts Congress gave big banks and financial institutions when the recession began.

“The reality is that it’s a corporate bailout package,” said Assistant House Minority Leader Kyrsten Sinema, a Phoenix Democrat.

The proposal will help the rich and not create jobs for middle-class Arizonans, Democratic leaders said at a press conference prior to the committee hearing.

In the hearing, Democratic lawmakers also criticized the bill for not solving the state’s budget problems, which legislative budget analysts say total about $4 billion over the next 18 months.
But Rep. Rick Murphy, a Glendale Republican who chairs the Ways and Means Committee, said diversifying the economy and solving the budget crisis “are two sides of the same coin.”

Adams, too, said there would be other bills aimed at fixing the current budget problems.

“We would be very shortsighted if all we did…was balance the state budget and not recognize the needs of the private economy,” he said.

The bill was approved by a 6-2 vote, with St. John’s Democrat Jack Brown joining the five Republicans on the committee in supporting the measure.

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