Sunday, March 27, 2011

Arizona Legislature's Continued War on the Poor and Middle Class

The Republicans in control of the Arizona Legislature have fired another salvo in their continuing war on the poor and middle class.  According to the Arizona Republic:
If Arizona shifts to a one-size-fits-all income tax, it would raise taxes for 88 percent of Arizona filers while cutting them for the 12 percent with a taxable income of more than $100,000 a year, a legislative analysis shows.
It wasn't enough that the legislature instituted a corporate welfare plan that will cost $538 million a year while wanting to eliminate the state's Medicaid program, now they want to cut taxes for the state's wealthiest 12% while raising taxes on the other 88%.  It wasn't enough that they want to demonize those on food stamps, but they also want to increase taxes by an average of $200 on those making less than $100,000 per year.

In fact, those making less than $10,000 per year (which makes up 15% of the population) will pay $56.9 million more in taxes while those making $5 million (0.01% of the population) or more per year will see a tax cut of $67.2 million.  Couple that with the states over reliance on sales taxes, the poor and middle class will be contributing a larger portion of their incomes in taxes to give tax cuts to the wealthy.

This is just one more weapon conservatives will use in their war.  Do we need any more evidence that this is a war?  Do we need any more evidence we need to increase our efforts to vote true liberals to office?

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