Guest ContributorA new report from the Common Sense Institute Arizona (CSI) and the Arizona Chamber Foundation warns that dozens of bills introduced in the 2025 Arizona legislative session could have placed the state’s decade of economic growth at risk, threatening jobs, incomes, and overall competitiveness.
The 2025 Arizona Job Killers report identified 88 bills that, if enacted, would have imposed more than $45.9 billion in new annual costs on businesses, reduced employment by 660,000 jobs (a 20% decline), cut per-capita income by $4,600, and shrunk Arizona’s economy by $64 billion.
Bad bills could cost Arizona jobs
The report underscores that Arizona’s pro-growth policies since 2016—including lower taxes, smaller government, and fewer regulations—helped drive some of the nation’s strongest gains in jobs and GDP. Recent slowdowns in hiring and housing, however, coupled with the volume of “job killer” legislation considered in 2025, highlight the risks of policy missteps.
“Arizona has shown the nation what happens when states embrace policies that encourage growth,” said Courtney Coolidge, executive vice president of the Arizona Chamber of Commerce & Industry. “But this report makes clear that the progress we’ve made is not guaranteed. The sheer number of costly bills considered in the 2025 session should serve as a warning. We must remain vigilant in protecting Arizona’s competitiveness and preserving the policies that have made us an economic leader.”
The costliest proposals
Among the most significant measures flagged in the report:
- Repeal of Arizona’s right-to-work law — projected to impose $18.6 billion in new costs and reduce employment by nearly 4% by 2033.
- New or increased taxes — totaling $3.7 billion, including a proposed 1% payroll tax on employers with more than 50 workers and a $1,000 minimum corporate income tax.
- Energy and environmental mandates — including adopting California-style vehicle emissions standards and requiring 50% renewable electricity generation by 2035, which CSI estimated would raise energy costs by billions and reduce job growth.
- Housing market interventions — such as rent control, which CSI cited as a policy with a “well-documented” record of reducing supply and harming affordability.
Lessons from Colorado
The report draws sharp contrasts with Colorado, where CSI has tracked the enactment of more than 20 “job killer” laws since 2019. Once a peer economy, Colorado has since fallen behind Arizona in both GDP and job growth. CSI estimates that if Arizona had followed Colorado’s trajectory, the state would have 113,000 fewer workers and $18.6 billion less in annual economic output today.
Katie Ratlief, executive director of CSI Arizona, said the findings illustrate the direct connection between public policy and economic performance.
“Good policy choices have helped Arizona outpace much of the country in growth over the last decade,” Ratlief said. “But as this report shows, just a handful of costly mandates could reverse those gains. The lesson from states like Colorado is clear: when lawmakers pursue policies that burden job creators, the entire economy suffers.”
While none of the 88 bills analyzed were enacted this year, the report cautions that the annual introduction of such legislation reflects a continuing risk.
CSI and the Chamber argue that sustaining Arizona’s economic momentum will require policymakers to reject measures that add costs, restrict growth, or erode the state’s business-friendly climate.
“Arizona stands at a crossroads,” the report says. “After a decade that brought generational change, job growth has stalled and the economy has slowed. The lessons are clear: there are pro-growth policies, and policies that hurt growth. Too often, the search for villains – developers or data centers being blamed for water shortages, or investors and short-term-rentals for housing market woes – deflects from real problems and leads to harmful policies.”
Image courtesy Pixabay and was published prior to July 2017 under the Creative Commons CC0 1.0 Universal Public Domain Dedication license
Danny Seiden
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