Analysis finds proposals are recipe for tremendous economic harm
PHOENIX (November 1, 2018) – A new analysis prepared by economist Jim Rounds for the Arizona Chamber of Commerce & Industry finds that the economic proposals of gubernatorial candidate David Garcia would do tremendous damage to the state’s economy.
Rounds, the former senior economist and budget analyst for the Arizona Joint Legislative Budget Committee, assessed three planks of Garcia’s economic platform: Free college tuition, a “Medicare for All”-style healthcare plan, and a tax increase like that contained in the ill-fated Invest in Ed initiative.
Rounds found that not only is each proposal fiscally unsustainable, but that collectively they “are nothing more than a promise to derail the state’s economy.”
“This study of his plan makes clear that each economic proposal put forward by Garcia is incredibly irresponsible,” Arizona Chamber President and CEO Glenn Hamer said. “The numbers don’t lie: If Garcia’s agenda were to become law, job growth would go in the tank.”
According to Rounds’ analysis, the Garcia free college tuition proposal would cost the state $2.6 billion annually, which amounts to more than a quarter of the entire state general fund.
The costs of Garcia’s healthcare plan, a “Medicare for All” concept like that championed by U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders, range from $4.3 billion per year if limited only to the state’s uninsured to a staggering $45 billion per year if extended to all Arizonans, which Rounds’ study finds “mathematically impossible” to implement.
The tax increase that Garcia supports, which was contained in the Invest in Ed initiative that the state Supreme Court removed from the ballot due to its authors’ attempts to confuse and mislead voters, would raise the income tax rate on as many as 40,000 small businesses. If implemented, the tax increase would result in billions of dollars in lost tax revenues over a decade and more than 100,000 fewer jobs over that same period.
“Even a cursory look at Garcia’s economic plans tells you all you need to know about why the state’s business community has rejected Garcia’s candidacy,” Hamer said. “The Garcia agenda would be devastating to Arizona job creators and would short-circuit the economic progress we’ve made over the last decade.”
A memo on Rounds findings that he prepared for the Chamber can found here.
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