Arizona lawmakers this week will consider a pair of proposals that would exempt some income from state income taxes. One deals with tips, while the other is age-based.
Howie Fischer of Capitol Media Services joined The Show to talk about what to expect this week at the state capitol.
Full conversation
MARK BRODIE: Good morning, Howie.
HOWIE FISCHER: Good morning. So did I win the NPR tote bag?
BRODIE: We'll try to send you one. So let's talk about this first bill, which is an age-based bill dealing with exempting some income from tips, and the sponsor, it sounds like he's taking kind of an interesting philosophy on this.
FISCHER: Well, there are a couple of bills and they're sort of related. One of them would allow anyone younger than 18 to earn up to $50,000 in gross income without being subject to state income taxes. The concept behind it by Representative Kupper is that sometimes there are teens who need to help out with the family, and if they are going out and doing that, we shouldn't be having the state grab its 2.5% off of that. Now 2.5% is, you know, still a fair amount and so the idea is, well, maybe we'll encourage more kids to work.
Now this is an interesting bill because the question becomes, so if you're a mom and dad and you're already taking junior as a deduction. If Junior's already earning perhaps more than mom and dad is, so they get to take him as a deduction on their own income tax, or does he have to file his own tax form, which is a zero tax, but he's claiming himself as a deduction. So that gets interesting.
The other bill, as you point out, is one that's not age-based. But it's based on the idea that people who are earning tips shouldn't have to pay income on that. It becomes maybe philosophically sort of like a gift, and we all know that folks, a lot of folks who are in the tip earning area are folks who are not exactly at the top of the income sale. And so the proposal would say that going forward, if you can tease out what you got in tips, you shouldn't have to pay income on that.
Now, income taxes. Now, again, this gets complicated in terms of, for example, sometimes a tip worker has to share his or her earnings with everyone else in the restaurant, how that gets computed, I don't know. Now the issue for both of them is there's a price tag to allowing anyone younger than 18 to earn $50,000 would take $8 million out of the year, every year out of the state budget. The tip worker measure has a $31 million price tag, so that's going to have to get discussed as we get to the budget.
BRODIE: Yeah, now both of these bills will be going before legislative committees this week. I want to ask you about something that the sponsor of the under 18 bill said, basically saying that this having people under 18 having to pay taxes is taxation without representation because they're not allowed to, they're not old enough to vote yet.
FISCHER: Well, that's a very interesting question there because of this issue of yes, you're not voting, but you are living with the benefits of society. You've probably been driving since you're 16, you, you're using the streets, you're using the roads, you're taking advantage of other benefits. The voting thing has been interesting over the years because that's how we got the voting age lower to 18 because people were being sent off to Vietnam and elsewhere so that's that, that's another question.
But then again you can't drink till you're 21 so should we be saying, well, you know, if you know at what age we start drinking or maybe if we start letting drink at 16 because, well then they're not having a voice in who's setting the policies. These become very tricky questions, and then you get into other questions in terms of, for example, you have people who are here, who are permanent legal residents and they're here legally. They're not voting. Should they have to pay taxes? Interesting question.
BRODIE: Yeah, so Howie, there's another bill coming up this week in committee, and we've seen some attempts like this in the past. This would require school board candidates to be listed by their partisan designation, Republican, Democrat, independent, whatever they may be, and supporters are saying, look, you know, these races are often somewhat low profile. This is a way to at least give voters a sense of where candidates might fall on the political spectrum, some of the things they might believe in.
FISCHER: Well, and this is also a fascinating question of, if you are a Republican, Do you have a specific set of beliefs on every education issue that's different than a Democrat? Now, the idea is same thing city council raises. Most city council races are nonpartisan. The idea is that potholes are not Republican potholes or Democratic potholes. The question of what should we have in the library? Is that a Republican issue or a Democratic issue?
Now, there are certain folks who would say, well, if you don't know who the person is, if you haven't taken the time to read their background, who haven't had time to interview them, that having an R behind their name might indicate that they'd be more restrictive in terms of what books the kids can borrow or questions of do you get to address a child by his or her, you know, specific request on a pronoun, although that's being handled obviously at the legislative level.
it is a shorthand, but it's, it's again, is it cheating to say, well, I'm only gonna vote a party ticket, even if you don't know anything about the person. I admit I live in Laveen’s school district. I don't fully understand the standings of all of my candidates for school board. I try to do a little research. Should I just decide, well, this person is an R or a D. That's how we should decide who to vote for.
BRODIE: Well, Howie, to the point of nonpartisan elections, you referenced cities. There have been efforts in the past to make city elections partisan. Does it seem as though this might have enough support to at least get to the governor's desk?
FISCHER: Oh, I think it does. Now what the governor might do with it, you know, hard to say. What's fascinating though is we do have one city in the state that has partisan city elections, and that's Tucson. And yet these very same lawmakers were the ones who wanted to make those elections nonpartisan because they think it'll make it easier for Republicans to get elected down there. So, you know, where you stand depends on where you sit.
BRODIE: Interesting. All right. That is Howie Fisher of Capital Media Services. Howie, thank you as always.
FISCHER: I'm still waiting for that tote bag.
