8 April 3rd-April 9th, 2025 phoenixnewtimes.com PHOENIX NEW TIMES | NEWS | FEATURE | FOOD & DRINK | ARTS & CULTURE | MUSIC | CONCERTS | CANNABIS | FULL BAR! BILLS OF $50 OR MORE Dine-In or Take Out Not Including Combinations Dinner Only Expires 12/31/25 Closed On Tuesdays $5 OFF 2050 N. Alma School Rd., #36 • 480.857.4188 Loosey Ducey Ex-Gov. Doug Ducey is another member of Goldwater’s board, a fact both unsur- prising and, in light of the film tax credit suit, ironic. Though a conservative, Ducey was hardly averse to handing out tax incentives. During his governorship, he co-chaired the Arizona Commerce Authority, which doles out grants and incentives to corporations like Halloween candy. As he left office in 2022, he also proudly announced the ACA had obtained $100 million in federal funds for the benefit of Arizona’s semiconductor industry. Goldwater is suing the ACA over the film tax credit. Ducey could have saved Goldwater — and the state of Arizona — the cost of this litigation by vetoing the credit when it came to his desk during his final year in office. Instead, Ducey allowed the very incentives that Goldwater has character- ized online as “lavish Hollywood hand- outs” to become law without his signature. Asked if he saw a conflict between Ducey’s action on the law and the ex-governor’s presence on the board, Jackson said he didn’t think so because Ducey didn’t sign it. But Ducey could have vetoed it, right? “Sure, he could have,” Jackson said. “There’s all sorts of stuff that happens with legislation and budget negotiations and stuff behind the scenes. I don’t have any direct knowledge of that, and it doesn’t affect the lawsuit directly.” The ACA itself is a controversial institu- tion among conservatives and was the subject of vigorous debate last year, when it was scheduled to sunset. Some legislators argued that the agency should be elimi- nated, and Arizona Attorney General Kris Mayes issued an opinion stating that multi- million-dollar CEO junkets sponsored by the ACA clearly violated the gift clause. Ultimately, the legislature reauthorized the ACA through 2029. Jackson said that only the ACA tax credits “that violate the gift clause are bad.” He added that the Arizona Supreme Court ruled that “indirect” benefits, such as those touted by supporters of Arizona’s film tax credit, don’t pass muster. Even if the rosiest of projections are true and the film tax credit eventually makes money for the state, the credit would still be inappropriate. As the former co-chair of the ACA, Ducey’s spot on Goldwater’s board might seem an odd fit. It’s not: Ducey was largely responsible for the institute’s two big ideo- logical wins in recent memory. One was signing into law the Goldwater-backed expansion of private school vouchers, known as Empowerment Scholarship Accounts. The other was instituting a 2.5% flat income tax, which took effect at the beginning of 2023. According to the nonpartisan Grand Canyon Institute, both initiatives are reverse Robin Hood budget-busters. The think tank pegged the flat tax’s annual cost at $2 billion in lost revenue, claiming that 70% of the flat tax’s benefits “went to households with incomes above $200,000.” ESAs have been a similar giveaway to the wealthy, with an estimated net cost of $429 million for the current fiscal year. The institute also reported that parents often bank the ESAs, resulting in “$360 million in funds, including those carried over from prior fiscal years, that have gone unspent.” ProPublica reported that the average ESA award of roughly $7,000 mostly went to middle- and upper-income families who were already sending their kids to private schools. Despite that, the Goldwater Institute has crowed about both the flat tax and the ESA expansion. On its website, Goldwater said it was “proud to have simplified the state’s tax laws and reduced the burden on Arizona’s taxpayers” with the flat tax. As for the ESAs, Goldwater claimed they’re “free” programs that give “every parent in Arizona the power to get their child into a school that fits.” Jackson said “every state constitution” requires funding education while “there’s no part of the constitution that says the state is supposed to fund movies.” That’s true, though the constitution does not mandate that the state pay wealthy families to send their children to private academies. Dave Wells, the research director for the Grand Canyon Institute, said ESAs are about “privatizing things that government has done,” and the flat tax is about “reducing the scope of what government is even able to do.” Goldwater likes to proffer “silly arguments that these things will pay for themselves or lead to massive dynamic economic growth.” “If any of that was true, Arizona would probably be the richest state in the country,” he added, “because we’ve been doing massive tax cuts since the ‘90s and are still not at the medium level of income in the country.” A persuasive anti-tax-break argument, perhaps one Goldwater might consider using in court — unless someone needs it finance a movie about ass-kicking turtles. Eric Crown (left) and former Gov. Doug Ducey (right) both serve on the board of the conservative Goldwater Institution. (Michael Buckner/Getty Images) Tax Break Mutant Ninja Turtles from p 6
