Arizona Superior Court for Maricopa County
The issue is whether the City of Phoenix's $97.4 million sales tax incentive given to an out-of-state developer violates the Arizona constitution’s prohibition against tax payer subsidies. The majority of NFIB members in Arizona do not believe that the government should provide tax incentives to businesses to locate or relocate to a particular city or town. When a municipality commits to providing substantial tax-rebates to a single entity, it must make up lost revenue by increasing the tax burden across the board. The effect of such development incentives is that small businesses and their patrons are forced to subsidize their competitors. Although the Arizona state legislature has passed a new law which prohibits the future use of such tax-rebate incentives in two Arizona counties, a small-business victory in this case would provide state constitutional precedent for Arizona small businesses challenging similar tax-rebate incentives in other jurisdictions across the state.
Status: PENDING. Amicus brief filed in support of tax payers challenging the subsidy Jan. 7, 2008.
