Arizona votes 2-1 to raise taxes!

[DeeZire]

Score one for the evil liberals.

http://azstarnet.com/news/local/gov...cle_e1905c9b-ba31-58c5-8983-0a425b711330.html

The state sales tax will be a penny higher for the next three years after a decisive majority of voters in nearly every county agreed to help backfill state coffers and avoid deep cuts in education.

With nearly 85 percent of polls reporting, Proposition 100 was winning by a nearly 2-1 margin, with 64 percent of voters in support.

Estimated to raise about $1 billion a year, the state sales tax will be 6.6 percent starting in June. With local taxes added on, Tucsonans will pay 9.1 cents per $1.

If the measure, spearheaded by Gov. Jan Brewer had tanked, the state Legislature had already outlined nearly $1 billion in additional cuts to help balance the budget for the fiscal year beginning July 1.

About two-thirds of the extra sales tax collected will go to primary and secondary education. But even those programs will see budget cuts - just not as deep. The remaining third will go to public safety and health and human services.

"The most important thing to me is that our teachers can go to work tomorrow knowing their community and state supports what they're doing," crowed Vail School District Superintendent Calvin Baker.

Ann-Eve Pedersen, head of the Arizona Education Network, was likewise celebrating. "It reinforces my faith in regular Arizonans to do the right thing. They were willing to do what legislators weren't - and that is to ensure proper funding for education and public safety."

Note to those who claim there's a liberal bias in the press - Gov Jan Brewer (R) was not in favor of this tax increase, contrary to what the article says. She was perfectly happy to cut even more education funding, lowering our ranking from #50 in per-pupil spending to - actually, I guess there's nowhere to go below #50, unless we want to start comparing our per-pupil spending to Mexico, or some other third world country. No, the governor succumbed to pressure from public opinion - perhaps concerned about her re-election bid this fall. She was appointed after Obama tapped AZ Governor Janet Napolitano for Homeland Security chief.

I just thought passage of this tax increase would be an interesting reality check for the anti-tax ideologues around here who think they're in the majority.

 

[JAMESBJOHNSON]

Imagine how far Abe Lincoln coulda gone with a union education. Christ! He coulda maybe been a teacher or a socialist worker for the guvmint.