This is Arizona’s centennial year. It’s both a grand accomplishment to celebrate and an occasion that we should mark by making our state government more effective and efficient.

One of the biggest steps we can take toward modernizing state government is with a revamp of the outdated rules and regulations that govern its workforce. Our personnel system is practically as old as the state itself.

Patchwork fixes and incremental improvements won’t do. Now is the time for fundamental reform.

Arizona lawmakers may temporarily halt a burgeoning 12-year-old program that allows the creation of special vocational school districts. The districts have grown steadily, but critics say the initiatives have become a financial burden the state may no longer be able to afford.


Legislation being debated at the state Capitol would put a two-year moratorium on the expansion or formation of additional job-training hubs, known as joint technological education districts.

School districts will have to dig deeper in their own pockets to pay electricity, water and telephone bills for the next two years, thanks to a new legislative cap on excess utility funding for the schools.


Large districts say the money - millions of dollars that would ordinarily come from an excess utility tax levied by the districts as a portion of local property taxes - will have to come from the same pool of money that districts use to pay for salary increases, new positions, supplies and special programs.

The recent U.S. Supreme Court decision on school vouchers has reignited debate on this important public policy issue.


This decision, as well as a similar ruling from the Arizona Supreme Court in 1999, opens the way for a healthy and focused debate on the benefits of vouchers.

While few would argue that the overriding benefit of vouchers is to empower parents with the choice of where to send their child to school, the financial benefits vouchers provide to taxpayers should also weigh heavily in future debates.

A notable property tax increase proposal will be going to Pima County voters in November. In Proposition 400, Pima Community College asks voters to approve a seven-year property tax levy limit override, the first community college to do so since voters approved the constitutional limits in 1980.


So far, the publicity surrounding this increase has a familiar ring, demonstrating once again the power local government has to "manage the message."

Steve Huffman is coming to the rescue of beleaguered taxpayers who pay the bills for the Tucson Unified School District - and TUSD is not happy about it.


Huffman is a Republican who represents northwest Tucson in the state House. And he has introduced a bill that - if passed - will make it far more difficult for TUSD and 18 other Arizona school districts to increase taxes by virtually any amount with the public unable to do anything about it.

SCOTTSDALE - The possibility of larger class sizes and cuts to music and physical education is not enough to persuade Ray Currens to vote for the upcoming budget override in the Scottsdale Unified School District.


The retired Motorola engineer plans to visit the polls March 11 and vote against the measure.

"I will be there with bells on," said Currens, who wants to see more cuts made in district administration.

SCOTTSDALE - Supporters of the upcoming budget override election in the Scottsdale Unified School District say that it may not be a slam dunk despite their high-profile campaign - and that they're taking nothing for granted.

Although there is no organized opposition, a number of dissenting voices spoke out at a community forum on the override at Scottsdale Community College and said they plan to vote no at the polls March 11.

East Valley school districts already laying off staff and canceling programs now face millions of dollars in new cuts this year as the Legislature narrowly ordered them to roll back their spending on utility costs.


The effect of a bill adopted in a special budget session Monday will force school districts statewide to shift spending by an estimated $10 million through budgetreductions for an area called "excess utilities" that must be returned to their pre-2002 level.

There is a lot of misinformation being advanced about education funding through the misuse of statistics. I would like to straighten out a few things about what’s really been done to fund our schools and where Arizona ranks nationally in meaningful categories.