Essentially, if we could do just three things to assure gun safety, it would be.
1) Require people who wish to purchase a firearm to get a license to do so from their local police department.  This is one of the most effective methods to ensure gun safety.
2) Create a nationwide electronic data base that tracks gun purchases. Currently, after the fact we can track where purchases were done, but law enforcement has no tool to pre-emptively identify risk, such as the two semi-automatic rifle purchases of the Texas shooter right after he turned 18.
3) Red Flag Laws–these are most helpful in preventing suicides by temporarily or permanently preventing individuals deemed to be a potential danger to themselves or others from procuring a firearm. These only work, though, if data bases used to conduct background checks are well integrated with mental health records as well as past violent offenses.

In its analysis of the state government’s 2.5% flat tax passed in 2021, the Grand Canyon Institute (GCI) found that Arizona’s wealthiest (top 0.03% of tax filers) will see tax cuts of $206 million while half of the state’s tax filers will save a total of $15 million.

In this case, the Supreme Court decided that Arizona voters may not refer to the ballot a massive tax cut for the wealthy due to a colossal misreading of the state’s constitution.

• The US Supreme Court will consider a case that addresses the use of tax credits to pay for private school tuition at a religious school.
• Arizona’s private schools are mostly religious and not bound by curricular standards and can discriminate against students or families who do not comply with the tenets of the school’s religion.
• Arizona redirects about $200 million per year on private school subsidies.
• Arizona’s private school subsidies have increased student enrollment by only 4,000 over 20 years.
• Charter schools are a much more successful and less expensive school choice option, serving 160,000 more students annually than they served 20 years ago.

Assessing the performance of charters schools compared to district schools

Murmurs of the next recession have been around for years. So, let’s say the worst actually does come to pass in the United States, what can we expect to happen?Look nowhere else than an industry which gets hit hard during these times by our legislature’s austerity angst: higher education.

Two policies stand out: Permit to Purchase and prohibiting violent offenders from accessing guns.

Trish McCarty used charter funds for her Hawaiian vacation.  Now she’s being sued.

Governor Doug Ducey released a tweet denouncing Nike for cancelling plans to produce a Betsy Ross Flag version of sneakers—all designed to hit the 5 a.m. Eastern Time Fox News cycle.

While Arizonians were enjoying their Memorial Day weekend, lawmakers and their staff were trapped in the boiler room, desperately trying to keep the collective madness from igniting into threats, ultimatums, or even open rebellion.  Now that the West is a bit less wild and we enter the new fiscal year, let’s take a look at how our esteemed officials left some of the issues that we have been following.

Federal Tax Conformity and the Supreme Court’s Wayfair decision give lawmakers an additional $300 million in revenue.  Will they make critical investments in education or reduce taxes?