Education Finance

After racing through the Senate in two days, the state budget has come to a screeching halt in the House as state lawmakers battle over key issues. Chief among them: a proposal to stop school districts from converting their schools to charters and, in the process, collecting more state revenue per student.

The budget proposal that passed the Senate would retroactively forbid the practice after June 2013, impacting more than a dozen schools that have been converted during the past year and costing some districts millions of dollars.

PHOENIX -- The Arizona Legislature is considering giving a big property tax break to a private Christian university in west Phoenix that plans to expand to Mesa and possibly Tucson.

The Senate Finance Committee voted 6-1 Wednesday to cut the taxes Grand Canyon University must pay every year by reclassifying it into a much lower rate.

If passed by the Legislature and signed by Gov. Jan Brewer, the university's tax bill for its Phoenix campus this year would drop from slightly more than $1 million to about $264,000.

Higley Unified School District officials are waiting to see how a bill does in the state Legislature that would temporarily increase bonded indebtedness for school districts before deciding whether it will ask voters to approve another bond in November.


House Bill 2405, which has been referred to the Senate Rules Committee, would fix a deficiency in a Senate bill passed last year to bring some relief to Higley and other school districts that can't touch already approved bond money because of declining real estate valuations.

The cracks in the school walls are still spreading. The fire alarms sound too often or don't sound at all. Mechanics struggle to keep old school buses running one more year. Budget managers try to figure out where the money will come from to fix leaky roofs, wheezing air-conditioners and broken vents.


Across Arizona, school districts struggle to find the funds to fix and maintain their buildings, in large part because state lawmakers over the past decade have countered laws and legal rulings meant to help all public-school facilities meet or exceed a basic standard.

Timothy M. Hogan was a skinny 20-year-old when he first flashed his courtroom savvy to overturn a government edict.

It was January 1972, the Vietnam War was raging and Uncle Sam needed soldiers. Hogan was drafted and about to lose his student deferment because he wasn't taking enough classes. He took his pre-induction physical, but at the same time he appealed to get his deferment back. Uncle Sam bought his argument that he would take a full course load.

Community college officials came in full force to the state Capitol earlier this year to outline the potential ramifications for the proposed steep cuts to their budgets.

They drove home one point: The cuts would likely compel them to increase tuition, and maybe even raise property tax rates. And it might also put other programs in jeopardy.

Yet at the time they made their case, most college districts were sitting atop millions of dollars in cash reserves.

A coalition seeking a voter-approved tax hike for education may have an ally in Gov. Jan Brewer, who gave her strongest signals yet that she may support the group’s proposed ballot measure.


The governor has been hesitant to take a position on the education coalition’s ballot initiative plans, which are tentative, at best.

But she opened the door a little wider this week, saying she is aware of the revenue drop-off the state will face when a billion-dollar-a-year tax expires in less than two years, and believes a new solution is necessary.

Several Southwest Valley school districts are asking voters to pitch in with extra money to sustain programs or increase funding to help maintain schools.


Voters in the Fowler, Liberty and Littleton elementary and Buckeye Union High school districts will decide Nov. 8 whether to approve maintenance and operations override proposals that range from $1.8 million to $3.4 million depending on district size.

The Maricopa County Community College District governing board will decide Tuesday whether to raise the property tax to help offset a steep decline in state aid.


The 10-college system is proposing a $1.4 billion budget for 2011-12, which includes a 3 percent increase in the property-tax levy. The board's vote will follow a public hearing.

If approved, the annual tax increase for a home assessed at $100,000 in Maricopa County would be about $24, effective July 1. The property owner would pay $121.60 per year, up from $97.34 in 2010-11.

SIGNAL PEAK — The Central Arizona College Governing Board has approved a budget of roughly $136.1 million for the 2011-12 school year, which begins July 1. The tax rate is rising but the total tax levy is falling because of lower property values.


The budget includes $39.5 million for the general fund, $88.8 million for the unexpended plant fund and $7.8 million to retire debt.