/ Modified oct 20, 2014 4:33 p.m.

AZ WEEK: Ducey Says Revenue from Job Creation Can Fix Budget

Republican would like to eliminate income tax, revamp tax code to attract more businesses, bring more work to Arizona.

Arizona's economy has been a platform issue for Republican Doug Ducey in the governor's race.

In the upcoming general election, whoever replaces Gov.Jan Brewer faces a projected $1 billion deficit in the first two years of office, and Ducey has highlighted bringing more work to the state and kickstarting the economy as a tactic to take on this deficit.

"There is nothing like a growing economy to fix budget concerns, so the more job creation and growth we can have, the more tax revenues we create, the better it is to close that budget gap," he said during Friday's broadcast of Arizona Week.

The Republican recently visited Tucson and took a tour of Pima Community College with PCC Chancellor Lee Lambert.

Ducey has said he wants to eliminate the state's income tax and revamp the tax code to revive the economy.

"We want Arizona to be the best possible state in the nation to do business," he said. "I want our existing companies to be expanding. I want companies from out of state to look at Arizona as the perfect place to do business. We have to start by simplifying our tax code, stop any regulations...have small business owners grow, a governor can help build that type of an environment... ."

If the state is going to have a growing economy, the focus should also be on education, Ducey said.

"You have to have equipped K-12 students, so when they graduate, they can go into the workforce or go into higher learning training," he said.

He also said government must be made more efficient to the taxpayer.

"How do we restructure the government and use technology, so that we are creating jobs in the private sector...so that we are making the private sector and economy larger, rather than having a more expensive government?" he said.

Ducey is facing Democrat Fred DuVal, Libertarian Barry Hess and Americans Elect candidate John Mealer in the general election, Nov. 4.

Border Crisis
For more coverage of the 2014 Elections,
please click here.
Read More
By posting comments, you agree to our
AZPM encourages comments, but comments that contain profanity, unrelated information, threats, libel, defamatory statements, obscenities, pornography or that violate the law are not allowed. Comments that promote commercial products or services are not allowed. Comments in violation of this policy will be removed. Continued posting of comments that violate this policy will result in the commenter being banned from the site.

By submitting your comments, you hereby give AZPM the right to post your comments and potentially use them in any other form of media operated by this institution.
AZPM is a service of the University of Arizona and our broadcast stations are licensed to the Arizona Board of Regents who hold the trademarks for Arizona Public Media and AZPM. We respectfully acknowledge the University of Arizona is on the land and territories of Indigenous peoples.
The University of Arizona