PHOENIX - President Donald Trump’s trade war with China could deliver a double whammy to Arizona.
Trump’s proposed tariffs amount to a 25 percent tax on about 6,000 products from China, from laptops to women’s handbags to Christmas decorations.
Businesses could suffer if sales slow down because tariffs are showing up in higher prices.
But all that stuff we buy from China generates the sales taxes that help pay for Arizona schools and other things we rely on. That matters, because Arizona relies more heavily than almost any other state on sales taxes to run its government:
- 45 cents of every dollar Arizona spends on services we count on is generated by sales taxes, according to the Legislature’s non-partisan Joint Legislative Budget Committee.
- Sales-tax collections total about one-thousand dollars a year for every person in the state.
- Factoring in both state and local sales taxes, Arizona ranks fifth in the country for its dependence on sales taxes, according to the Tax Foundation.
Trump’s tariffs are not a done deal.
The first public hearing on the tariffs is scheduled for June 17, according to the office of the U.S. Trade Representative. The first of several rounds of tariffs could be imposed on China just days later and roll out through the summer.
China is threatening to retaliate against the U.S. in June with its own tariffs