Secretary of State Ken Bennett has formally kicked off his bid for governor with a plan to expand the Arizona sales tax to more items. Bennett calls the state income tax a disincentive for companies to move to Arizona.
“I think we can look at and work together with economists and our budget people, and look at how we can replace the income tax with a low-rate, broad-based sales tax,” Bennett said.
He likens his version of the tax to what is called the fair tax at the federal level. His plan would likely tax additional services, like labor on repairs, a major exemption under the current sales tax law. Bennett says it might tax some food products, which are exempt from the current law.
But nearly half the state’s $9 billion budget comes from the taxes Bennett wants to eliminate and the candidate refused to provide reporters with specifics of how he’d make the numbers work, saying he would work the numbers out over time.