Scottsdale Unified School District officials are facing a financial crunch anyway, and a plan proposed by Gov. Janet Napolitano could add to their difficulties.

The governor has said she won't raise taxes to pull Arizona government out of its own economic quagmire. But she wants to change the qualifying tax rate, one of the fundamental elements of the state's kindergarten-through-Grade-12 school finance formula. It's basically an Achilles' heel of Proposition 108, which voters added to the Arizona Constitution in 1992 to make it harder for the Legislature to raise taxes.

The qualifying tax rate is an arcane mechanism that essentially determines how much state aid districts will get so that elementary and high school maintenance and operation funding is "equalized" in property-poor and property-rich districts.

The proposal would rework the formula in such a way that the state would wind up saving about $12 million to $13 million, mostly at the expense of Scottsdale, where critics warn that dollar-for-dollar property tax increases would be inevitable to make up the loss.

In a nutshell, the qualifying tax rate would be shifted so that 70 percent would go to K-8 schools and 30 percent would go to Grades 9-12, which roughly is how Arizona's student population actually is split. And that's the rationale for this change, to reflect where the students are. Right now, the qualifying tax rate is divided evenly between elementary and high schools. It's complicated, but, in short, the move would shut off the tap of state aid to Scottsdale.

"The way the math works out, Scottsdale has a tax increase that is about equal to the overall cost savings," said Michael Hunter, vice president of the Arizona Tax Research Association, a tax watchdog group.

Although technically this may not be a state tax increase, it's a tax shift to Scottsdale homeowners and businesses. The state has major budget problems that will force belt-tightening across the board. But fairness suggests that it would be desirable for the state to assure that its changes don't unfairly pile on to any district. Scottsdale voters in 2001 rejected a budget override measure and a follow-up question will return to the ballot in March. District officials already had to make about $3 million in budget cuts - and probably will have to slash more even if the override is OK'd this time around.

Scottsdale is not a tiny or insignificant district. Though property wealthy, it has a large budget and legitimately can stake claim to some state help with K-8 efforts.

Even though Gov. Jane Hull tried to do the same thing in the past, we doubt Scottsdale's wallets would be put on the line in this way if economic times were brighter.

And Hunter points out that even if Scottsdale can be accused of benefiting unfairly from the qualifying tax rate as it stands today, then for purposes of "equity," the administration also should be trying to fix the system for numerous districts such as the West Valley's Union Elementary District, which takes a beating under its current property tax rate. But the governor's plan stops short of helping districts in situations that would cost the state money, he said.