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April 21, 2000/16 Nisan 5760, Vol. 52, No.33
Reparations to be exempt from tax
CHRIS GARIFO
Staff Writer
Reparations to Holocaust survivors and their families will be exempt from Arizona income tax under a law recently passed by the state Legislature.
Gov. Jane Hull, who has had a keen interest in the measure, signed HB2459 into law Tuesday afternoon (April 18), said George Weisz, an executive assistant to the governor. The law goes into effect 90 days after Tuesday's close of the legislative session.
"Reparations to Holocaust survivors are long overdue," Hull said in a prepared statement. "Hopefully, this bill will help ease the way for those who may get some small payment from those who must share the responsibility of one of our history's most horrendous and despicable tragedies. But no payment can ever compensate for the loss of the 6 million and the memories of man's worst inhumanity against man. Those memories will be in all of our hearts as Passover seders throughout the world recall the story of the Exodus from Egypt and as we commemorate Yom Ha'Shoah on April 30."
Under the law, sponsored by Rep. Wes Marsh, R-Scottsdale, any payments received or assets returned also would not be considered when determining eligibility for state entitlement programs, such as AHCCCS or Medicare.
Marsh said the measure was something "we needed to get done right away."
He said state officials are unsure just what sort of an impact will have on tax revenue, but that it's not expected to be significant. "The bottom line is it's the right thing to do."
The House approved the measure, 53-0 with seven members not voting, Thursday, April 13, and Senate passage came the next day on a 27-0 vote with three senators not voting.
"The Holocaust was a horrible thing ... (and) it's the least we can do to ease some of the pain that still exists regarding that," Marsh said.
Hull and Marsh credited the Jewish Federation of Greater Phoenix, and in particular Jewish Community Relations Council director Tami Schultz, as being a driving force behind the law's passage, including mustering supporters to call legislators urging them to approve the measure.
Schultz said federation officials believe there are about 550 Holocaust survivors in Arizona, "but that doesn't mean that they're all entitled to reparations."
She said federation officials "are very happy" about the legislation being passed.
"For people to have spent part of their lives in concentration camps and get very small reparations, then to be asked to pay income tax on this just seemed ludicrous to me," Schultz said.
The federation has enjoyed a series of recent political successes.
Besides the Holocaust reparations law, the federation last year helped to secure passage by the Legislature of the Religious Freedom Restoration Act. And, on April 4, the Scottsdale City Council approved two special-use permits to allow construction of the Jewish Community Campus at Scottsdale Road and Sweetwater Avenue.
"We've had a good year," Schultz said. "It's pretty humbling that in the last two years we've created two laws in the state of Arizona that started on the grass-roots level in the Jewish community. It's something to be very proud of."
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