Arizona Interfaith Network (AIN) joined business and community leaders as part of the American Business Immigration Coalition (ABIC), urging Senator Sinema and Senator Kelly to support action that would create pathways to citizenship for Dreamers, Temporary Protected Status holders, farmworkers, and essential workers.

Citing the labor shortage and the instability for both immigrant families and communities, the letter makes the case for Congressional action for common sense immigration solutions.

By demanding a referendum on Senate Bills 1828 and 1783, the coalition stopped the destructive reworking of Arizona’s tax code that would have reduced revenue by over $1 billion annually, putting future generations of Arizonans at risk. Instead the tax cut proposal will be referred to the 2022 ballot.  Voters may also decide whether some wealthy taxpayers can recategorize their income from pass-through business profits to avoid the Prop 208 surcharge altogether.

This utter lack of political will to invest in future generations has got to stop.

 

[Photo Credit: InvestInAZ Campaign] 

The rate change may be advertised as a tax cut to people at all income levels, but our lowest income earners, many of whom are essential workers, will receive what you would put in a tip jar, $1.

In an Arizona Republic Op-Ed and gathering at the state capitol, Arizona Interfaith Network Clergy denounced the proposed 2.5% Flat Tax that Arizona legislative leaders are pursuing.

AIN brought into sharper focus just how the most vulnerable in Arizona would fare if the flat tax budget is adopted. In light of the harrowing year that we have come through, AIN clergy noted that the essential workers, who have sacrificed the most during the pandemic, would receive the least.  “[The budget proposal] would bring no meaningful relief to these families, but instead, will write checks to Arizona’s wealthiest families on the back of our poor, middle-class, and minority families.