Arizona Capitol Times Your Inside Source for Arizona Government, Politics and Business

My independent and local pharmacy has five employees, meaning the HIT will add an estimated $2,500 to our health care costs next year.

State action may threaten about 40,000 jobs in Arizona’s energy industry, but those jobs aren’t ones that immediately come to mind. Instead, the 40,000 jobs – more than coal, wind, solar, oil and gas combined – are in energy efficiency.

As allegations of sexual harassment continue to flood into society, let’s be clear that sexual harassment is not the problem but the symptom. The problem is patriarchy in which women are defined as less than men; in which the disease – power imbalance – is what causes the symptoms i.e. domestic violence, rape, sexual harassment, infanticide, femicide, prostitution, etc.

Upon closer examination, it is evident that the proffered benefits of the tax plan are based on extremely rosy projections of double-barreled economic growth, accruing from massive tax breaks to major corporations and the upper one percent.

As tax reform becomes a major focus in Washington, Congress faces a unique opportunity to fix a situation that has long favored multinational corporations at the expense of U.S. companies. Doing so could level the playing field for American companies while also delivering an extra $1 trillion in tax revenue over the next decade.

How does the Affordable Care Act affect me and my community? Well, that is a big question with a big answer. ACA is big, it is more than the marketplace and mandates – which, by the way, is still the law. It is a whole system of care and infrastructure and problem solving intended to make us healthier as a nation.

When it comes to modernizing and simplifying our nation’s archaic tax codes and reducing tax burdens on citizens’ businesses, it seems that “perfect” may be getting in the way of “very good.” This is a common theme in Washington and one of the reasons why most of us see Congress as never getting anything done. But cutting taxes and simplifying the code also seems like a no-brainer to those of us who walk Main Street in cities and towns across our country. This plan will reduce taxes on employers — and that helps everyone.

In a recent article titled, “Dental therapist proposal to get new hearing before lawmakers,” Arizona Capitol Times readers heard from legislators that they do not believe we have a dentist shortage here in Arizona, despite overwhelming evidence, and federal reports, to the contrary.

Citing the costs of complying with federal environmental regulations and responding to the declining prices of natural gas, the Navajo Generating Station's owners voted earlier this year to take the facility offline about 25 years ahead of schedule. Those same factors have driven the closures of many coal-fired electricity generating plants nationwide.

For decades, our state has been a national leader in education freedom – the radical concept that parents know their own children best and should be empowered to select a school for them that is the right fit. The movement has flourished. Consider public charter schools, where enrollment is booming and reached a record 185,000 students statewide this year.