Third District Congressman John Shadegg surprised his audience at an Arizona Chamber of Commerce breakfast April 14 by telling Arizona business leaders who have urged state financing for all-day kindergarten that if they want the program they should accept a tax to pay for it.

Big-business executives have been quoted repeatedly as saying Arizona needs all-day kindergarten, Mr. Shadegg said, and they can show their support by backing a statewide tax on their business equipment to raise money for the program.

Energy companies should be taxed as well, he said, without passing the tax along to consumers, and a tax on real estate transfers might be considered too, since executives in that industry also have expressed support for state-funded all-day kindergarten.

“It is the duty of big business in Arizona to participate in volunteerism,” Mr. Shadegg said. “The cost should be eaten by those companies.”

His audience included several legislators, among them the House Speaker Jake Flake, R-5, who said he thought Mr. Shadegg hit exactly the right note.

House Speaker Agrees

“I loved his talk,” Mr. Flake said later. “I think he was right on. That’s firmly the way I feel — that whether we like all-day kindergarten or not is fairly immaterial; we just flat can’t afford all-day kindergarten, and those businessmen or whomever who feel like it’s important enough to do and want to push doing it, they’d better put their money where their mouth is and figure out a tax to pay for it.

“And we’d better figure not just $5 million or $24 million [levels of spending suggested by other legislators and Governor Napolitano] but the total cost, which is going to be $250 million to $300 million. They’d better put their money where their mouth is and give a tax that’s peculiar to them that want it, because many of our people, other businesses in this state, don’t want it and certainly can’t afford it.”

Governor’s Response

Governor Napolitano was asked for her reaction, and she said: “Congressman Shadegg proposed a business tax? I’ve got to mark this down with my red pen. Businesses pay a lot of tax in Arizona, and what business is saying is a very logical thing — that one of the things we want to pay taxes for out of our existing revenues is a better education system, of which all-day K is a part.”

The event began with presentation to Mr. Shadegg of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce’s “Spirit of Enterprise” award for voting in support of business positions on legislation — in Mr. Shadegg’s case 90 per cent of the time on 30 selected issues.

The state chamber’s advance notice of the breakfast said Mr. Shadegg, a Republican, would speak on health care and congressional politics, and he did, saying attempts to cut costs with health savings accounts and limits on medical-malpractice lawsuits face continuing political barriers but that the House GOP will keep trying. The next attempt at health-care cost reform, he said, will be a proposal by which an individual who gets guaranteed emergency care at taxpayer expense by order of the government cannot then sue for malpractice.

Then he said, “I cannot restrain myself from commenting on all-day kindergarten” and delivered his proposal to tax big businesses that have urged state support for “all-day K,” as it is known at the state Capitol, where it is a significant stumbling block in budget negotiations.

Mr. Shadegg said he is a fervent supporter of public education, himself a product of public elementary and high schools and the University of Arizona, and noted that his wife and two sisters are public school teachers.

He said there is conflicting evidence as to the value of all-day kindergarten, that the effect seems to fade after 5th grade, but that regardless of conflicting opinions, “we seem to have decided in favor of all-day kindergarten and the question is how to pay for it.

“I call on the Legislature,” he said, to fund all-day K this year, at the full cost of $250 million, because “if we scale back we are cheating the people of Arizona.” He said the program “should be funded in a way that says, ‘If you want it, you pay’” and then listed the proposed taxes cited above on big-business equipment, energy companies and real estate transfers. —