UPDATE, 2/25 1:10pm: The Arizona Supreme Court today instructed Superior Court Judge John Hannah to "promptly" and "timely enter its order deciding" whether the Invest In Education Prop. 208 surcharge "will result in the accumulation of tax revenues that cannot be spent without violating the aggregate expenditure limit ("AEL")."
The en banc court says it will check back on March 14 to see whether Judge Hannah has issued his decision. Such a warning is very uncommon and underscores the unique and significant issues surrounding this case. "IT IS FURTHER ORDERED that the superior court will promptly provide the Court with its order deciding the case...."
UPDATE, 2/10, 10:15pm: The Arizona Supreme Court is fast-tracking this Special Action. In an Order today, Duty Justice James Beene is giving Invest In Arizona until next Wednesday to file a Response, and the Petitioners will have two days to Reply. There will NOT be oral argument.
Original article, 2/10, 12:45pm: AZ Free Enterprise Club Leads Legislature, Governor Back To Supreme Court To Stop Education Tax Surcharge (Prop.208)
The opponents of Invest In Arizona's Prop. 208 are upset that Superior Court Judge John Hannah told them on Monday that he will not be rushed into ruling on an injunction against the education tax surcharge on wealthier Arizonans. They have brought both houses of the Legislature to file a Special Action with the Arizona Supreme Court, and Governor Doug Ducey has now jumped in in support.
The Supreme Court sent the case back to Judge Hannah to put the final nails in Prop. 208, with instructions to wait for the numbers to come in. The parties have been hashing it out since, and the Legislature/AZFEC/Governor say that all parties have stipulated that spending the revenues from Prop. 208 would put the state over the aggregate spending limit ("AEL"). The Justices had said if that was the case, the initiative would be unconstitutional.
The state is going over the AEL even without those additional revenues, and Republican opponents of Prop. 208 have been holding off on waiving the cap until getting Judge Hannah's opinion. On Monday, the judge said he would not be rushed.
The Supreme Court has not yet set a hearing.
The Free Enterprise Club and Legislature are being represented - at the Supreme Court only - by a trio of Dominic Draye (Greenberg Traurig), Brett Johnson (Snell & Wilmer) and Tim Sandefur (Goldwater Institute). Those attorneys are not involved in the Superior Court case, where AZFEC is being represented by Kory Langhofer and Tom Basile (Statecraft).
Ducey's amici brief was prepared in-house by General Counsel Anni Foster.
It is also worth noting that the Arizona Supreme Court also currently has under advisement an appeal involving the same parties. One of the Legislature's responses to the passage of Prop. 208 was to pass a flat(ter) tax measure to blunt the impact of the education surcharge. Prop. 208 proponents successfully collected enough petition signatures to put that on this November's ballot, and AZFEC appealed the Superior Court's decision denying a challenge to the ballot measure.
Here are the Special Action Petition and Gov. Ducey's amici brief.
This article was reported by AZ Law founder Paul Weich. Paul is currently running for a seat in Arizona's House of Representatives.
"AZ Law" includes articles, commentaries and updates about opinions from the Arizona Supreme Court, U.S. Supreme Court, as well as trial and appellate courts, etc. AZ Law is founded by Phoenix attorney Paul Weich, and joins Arizona's Politics on the internet.
No comments:
Post a Comment