No water? Schools facing a fiscal cliff? Hey, Arizona, let's cut taxes!

Arizona’s schools are speeding toward a fiscal cliff. Arizona’s water picture looks grimmer by the day. The number of Arizonans living on the streets has grown by 23% in just two years.

So naturally, first up on the agenda at the Arizona Legislature:

A hefty tax cut for corporations, one that’ll drain $1.8 billion from the state treasury over the next four years.

No, really.

“Cutting the corporate rate continues the state’s commitment to creating a low tax environment,” Rep. David Livingston, R-Peoria, said, in a press release touting his bill.

It is, apparently, not enough that 71% of the state’s corporations pay just $50 a year, thanks to tax credits that have reduced their tax burden to zero. (They pay just the annual $50 filing fee, according to the state Department of Revenue.)

Or that Arizona has one of the lowest corporate income tax rates in the nation. (Just seven other of the 44 states that levy a corporate tax have a lower rate, according to the Tax Foundation.)

It, apparently, isn’t a concern that Arizona has major new expenses ahead as we scramble to shore up our dwindling water supply. Or that the state’s new universal school voucher program that was supposed to cost us $33 million this year is already north of $300 million and rising.

Arizona hasn’t had a tax cut in, oh, the last 10 minutes.

OK, I’m kidding. It’s actually been nearly four months since Arizona’s last cut in taxes took effect, a $1.9 billion flat tax that mostly benefits the state’s wealthiest residents.So now comes a cut designed for some of the state’s largest corporations – the 29% that actually pay corporate taxes.

House Bill 2003 is the not just the first bill to get a hearing this year in the House. It’s actually on the fast track, having been approved by partyline votes Wednesday in both the Ways and Means and Appropriations committees.

The bill would gradually cut the state’s 4.9% corporate tax rate to 2.5% over the next four years, to match the state’s new flat income tax for individuals and small businesses.

Cost to the state: $223 million in the first year, according to legislative budget analysts. By year four, the annual tab would reach $668 million.

That’s a drop of $1.8 billion in four years.

Republicans paint it as a way to grow the economy and attract high paying jobs to the state. But Livingston acknowledged that no lobbyist or business asked for the tax cut.

And the state already has one of the lowest corporate income tax rates in the nation. If this bill passes, we would have the lowest corporate tax rate among the 44 states that levy corporate taxes, tied with North Carolina. (Four other states impose a gross receipts tax. South Dakota and Wyoming levy neither tax.)

It seems to me if we want to make the state more attractive to companies offering good jobs, our leaders might invest in producing a better educated workforce. Or perhaps we could ensure that when those arriving companies turn on the taps, they aren’t greeted a puff of desert dust rather than water.

It’s a given that this bill has no chance of passing. After more than a decade of constant tax cuts, Democratic Gov. Katie Hobbs seems likely to say enough’s enough.

But it’s telling to get a gander at the Republican Legislature’s first priority.

No, not waiving the aggregate spending limit so that schools aren’t faced with devastating budget cuts on April 1.

No, not taking swift action to stop the wholesale suck on Arizona’s dwindling rural water supply or to explore what the state will do now that we know there isn’t enough water available to support planned development in the West Valley … or likely, elsewhere.

Nope, it’s tax cuts.

Always tax cuts.

Reach Roberts at laurie.roberts@arizonarepublic.com. Follow her on Twitter at @LaurieRoberts.

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This article originally appeared on Arizona Republic: No water? Schools facing a fiscal cliff? Hey, Arizona, let's cut taxes!