Faced with a growing budget deficit that is currently estimated at $5 billion, the Arizona House approved a bill Thursday to further cut corporate and personal income taxes and provide rebates, payments and tax breaks to businesses that move to, or expand in, Arizona.

House Speaker Kirk Adams sponsored House Bill 2250 and believes the legislation, which also promotes additional job training programs, will help expand and stabilize Arizona's tax base, according to a story in The Arizona Republic.

SEIU Arizona director Scott Washburn said that while he shares the bill's goal of bringing more jobs to the state, "cutting general fund revenues at a time when basic services are already being slashed will make Arizona a less desirable place for business relocation and expansion."

SEIU Arizona is a member of the Arizona Budget Coalition, a group of more than 40 organizations working to preserve jobs, education, health and public services.  The ABC will encourage state senators to kill the bill.

"Both voters and businesses expect our state to provide the assets we need for a strong economy - assets like roads, parks, health care and a world-class education system," said Dana Wolfe Naimark, President and CEO of Children's Action Alliance, in an ABC press release. 

"Twenty years of tax cuts have left us short on these assets and contributed to the deficit we suffer from now," Naimark added.  "More of the same tax cuts will only make Arizona less competitive."

Read the conplete ABC press release in the Tucson Weekly.