Ideally, taxpayers should be able to weigh the costs of a school district property tax question against the benefits of the proposed spending. In Arizona, taxpayers soon discover that information on the taxation side of the equation is often difficult to understand.

Notes and observations from a campaign trail that's getting awfully muddy:


• The most vexing ballot measure this election is Proposition 401, the nearly billion-dollar bond program for the Maricopa County Community College District.

On the one hand, it's not ambitious enough.

The most pressing higher education need in the Valley right now is for choice and cost-effective, student-friendly environments. The community colleges provide such environments, and consideration should be given to expanding some of them into four-year, degree-granting institutions.

The campaign backing a nearly $1 billion bond measure for local colleges has raised nearly $600,000 for the effort, much of it from companies that have done business with the Maricopa Community College District.


More than $249,000 has been contributed by 29 firms that received contracts or negotiated with the district for special programs to train workers, according to recently released campaign finance reports and district records. Most of the firms specialize in construction, health care or finance.

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.

The AIMS test has been a cold shower on the body politic of Arizona. More than half the 65,000 students in the class of 2006 might not receive high school diplomas because they failed at least one component of the test. Now, an effort to fund a tutoring program for those students has raised some eyebrows at the Capitol.

PHOENIX - A Senate panel dealt a serious and potentially fatal blow Tuesday to efforts by community colleges to offer four-year degrees.


On a 6-5 margin the Appropriations Committee killed the House-passed proposal, which would have let half of the campuses provide junior- and senior-level courses leading to baccalaureate degrees.

Most of the lawmakers sided with the pleas of university lobbyists who said the issue needs further study.

PHOENIX - The Amphitheater and Tucson Unified school districts are just a signature away from having to change how they pay for desegregation programs - a significant area of money for some local schools.


Tucson parents and school leaders are watching for negative fallout, and business owners are looking for possible tax savings, as bills approved last week by the Legislature make their way to Gov. Janet Napolitano's desk.

PHOENIX -- Gov. Janet Napolitano vetoed two related bills Friday designed to restrict the ability of some school districts to increase their taxes.


One measure says the primary property tax rate cannot exceed $4.26 in elementary or high school districts and double that for unified school districts. But HB 2143 is written in a way to apply largely to districts located in counties with low property valuations.

By all accounts, Arizona has one of the more confusing funding mechanisms for public education. Instituted in 1980, the system was designed to replace an unfair system based solely on property taxes with one that saw the state chipping in to ensure all school districts were provided funding to allow “general and uniform” education, as required by the state Constitution.


However, instead of being equitable, some legislators, policy-makers and watchdog organizations say there are loopholes that create inequities and allow some districts to have access to greater sums of money.

EDITOR’S NOTE: The Nov. 8 ballot has three education measures. The next issue will share efforts by political action committees. The West-MEC bond request will be covered Oct. 26, 2005.


How much money Deer Valley Unified School District coffers take in will be determined by voters in coming weeks.

Early voting began last week for the Nov. 8 election, which will present three ballot questions asking residents to pay for education with property taxes.