Biggs says eliminating individual income tax will ultimately boost tax revenue for Arizona

Congressman Andy Biggs said Tuesday that if elected governor, he will eliminate the income tax — and argued doing so will actually increase the state’s tax revenue.

Biggs has long advocated for incrementally eliminating the income tax, which accounts for about 33% of the state’s budget, or $5.7 billion, according to the Joint Legislative Budget Committee.

Critics argue getting rid of the income tax would necessitate raising other taxes to make up the gaps, or the state will have to cut services.

Biggs said neither of those things would happen.

“I have every confidence that as we manage it and we incrementally bring this down you’re going to see more economic activity which is going to result in more tax revenue coming into the state,” Biggs said.

He also said he’ll also get rid of waste, fraud and abuse in state government, which he said would further offset the elimination of the income tax.

Biggs said when the federal government passed the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act in 2017, which lowered income tax rates, that wasn’t the reason the deficit increased. The federal deficit did increase after that legislation passed.

Biggs said that’s because the government didn’t cut spending.

He said last year’s federal spending bill, HR 1, has resulted in “record tax revenue” even thought the legislation cut taxes. The federal deficit is projected to increase since HR 1 went into effect.

Biggs' comments on Tuesday were part of a broader unveiling of what he intends to do if elected in his first 100 days in office.

His other fiscal promises include eliminating tax breaks for data centers and altering the state’s universal private school voucher program to give more to certain students.

Bigg’s ESA plans

Biggs said on stage at a debate last month that he wants to "expand" the state’s universal Empowerment Scholarship Account program, but didn’t get into the details of what that means.

On Tuesday, Biggs explained that he wants to modify the state’s Empowerment Scholarship Accounts program to ensure students in “economically disadvantaged” areas get more funding.

“To say that you have school choice when you really don't have school choice is a misnomer so we think that there’s room to raise some of the ESA money to help those underserved kids get a chance to make a choice,” he said.

Biggs referred specifically to students in rural parts of the state and in the “inner city” as those who may not have good school options around them.

Arizona students are awarded ESA money based on a few factors, including the students grade level and whether they have any disabilities. There’s a broad range of awards.

According to the Arizona Department of Education’s approximate ESA calculation chart for the 2025-26 school year, a kindergartner with no disabilities would be awarded a baseline of about $4,700. But a student with multiple disabilities could get more than $47,7000.

Arizona universally expanded ESAs in 2022 under the leadership of former Gov. Doug Ducey, and the program has now grown to serve more than 106,000 students.

Incumbent Gov. Katie Hobbs opposed the expansion and has tried to restrict the program over the course of her first term.