“Arizona isn’t broke. It’s being robbed.”
That’s the tagline of a new economic justice campaign from the Arizona Center for Empowerment (ACE), a member-led social justice organization that seeks to build an economy where every Arizonan is represented.
The campaign aims to reframe what’s possible for working and low-income families by calling for higher taxes on Arizona’s ultra-wealthy and large corporations to fully fund public priorities like housing, health care, education, and worker protections.
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The campaign is the result of input and feedback the organization has heard from its members, said Stephanie Maldonado, political director of Living United for Change in Arizona (LUCHA), ACE’s partner organization.
“Our campaigns are rooted in our members, the policies are reflected in their stories and their struggles,” Maldonado said.
For years, lawmakers and state leaders have said Arizonans are asking for too much, or their priorities are too big for the moment, Maldonado said.
“What we are fighting for is that the demands of working families, the demands of low-income families, should not be too much, they should just be enough,” Maldonado said. “Communities are demanding funding these programs to their fullest extent.”
At the core of the campaign, which is a continuation of LUCHA and ACE’s previous ‘People’s First Economy’ organizing campaign, is taxing Arizona’s ultra-wealthy residents to fund community-centered programs.
“We are offering Arizonans an alternative, a better future, a different way of doing things, in a way that doubles down and invests in our communities and actually delivers material change in people’s lives,” Maldonado said.
So, what is the organization demanding?
Tax reforms
- Repeal tax loopholes for the wealthy, including for private jet fuel, fine art, and corporate data centers
- Block new tax cuts for big corporations like data center developers and the ultra-rich
- Raise revenue by taxing large, profitable, out-of-state corporations
More affordable housing
- Cap annual rent increases at 3% above inflation
- Repeal the state ban on rent control
- Invest $200 million in housing
- $100 million for rental assistance
- $50 million for eviction prevention
- $50 million for public housing development
Paid leave for workers
- Create a universal paid family and medical leave program of 12 weeks funded by shared employer-employee payroll contributions
Immigration reform
- Block state funding for ICE coordination, detention expansion, and anti-immigrant contracts
- Ban 287(g) agreements and collaboration between ICE and local law enforcement
- Audit detention center contracts for human rights violations
Data center accountability
- Repeal sales tax exemptions for data centers
- Require public disclosure of water and energy usage
Elections
- Defend vote by mail, early voting, and drop boxes
- Oppose restrictions on ballot initiatives
- Pass automatic voter registration
Bipartisan support is needed for nearly any policy to make it through the Republican-controlled state legislature, meaning some of these proposals are likely dead on arrival. However, LUCHA and ACE hope that by aggressively organizing and campaigning for change, they can change politicians’ idea of what’s possible.
“What this campaign is reimagining is that we don’t have to be fighting for crumbs, we can actually have access to the whole pie,” Maldonado said.
Correction: A previous version of this story erroneously referred to the ‘Arizona We Deserve’ campaign as being led by LUCHA. The campaign is actually led by the Arizona Center for Empowerment (ACE), LUCHA’s partner organization.
