Education Finance

The Arizona Republic

Sunday, May 31, 2009

Alex Bloom

Maricopa Community Colleges will consider hiking district property taxes next month, but the measure could face resistance at a time when most county residents are feeling economic pain. Maricopa County Community College District administrators have asked the governing board for a 2 percent increase in property-tax revenues, or $7.5 million, to bring total revenues to about $359 million.

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Dilemma: More teachers or higher pay?

The Arizona Republic

Sunday, May 17, 2009

Pat Kossan

Arizona classrooms are the third-most crowded in the nation, and they're about to get squeezed further. A recession forced the Legislature this year to cut money for K-12 education, school-tax revenues are falling, and enrollment is declining, which means less per-student state funds but often consolidated classes. Next year looks no better, and federal stimulus dollars are seen as a short-term patch by many schools.

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Closing desegregation loophole could choke TUSD's finances

Tucson Citizen News

Thursday, January 8, 2009

Mark Kimble

A legal loophole that has allowed the Tucson Unified School District to rake in hundreds of millions of extra dollars over the past 25 years may be about to slam shut. There is no doubt TUSD and 18 other like-minded Arizona school districts need the extra money, which they say is for desegregating schools.

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School districts not helping

East Valley Tribune

Friday, September 5, 2008

Justin Olson

The reductions in Maricopa County property tax rates, as reported Aug. 19 in the Tribune, provide some good news for property taxpayers. Yet, as school district property taxes are affected not only by the school districts but also by the districts’ voters and the state Legislature, it is important for taxpayers to know who contributed to the tax rate declines and who actually inhibited the rates from falling as far as they would have otherwise.

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Myth of Arizona's miserable schools

The Arizona Republic

Wednesday, May 7, 2008

Robert Robb

One of the more persistent public-policy myths in Arizona is that the state has been shortchanging primary and secondary education. Not infrequently, the claim is made that per-pupil spending, adjusted for inflation, has actually been decreasing. This is manifestly false.

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Bond debt high in Scottsdale schools, city govt.

East Valley Tribune

Tuesday, February 26, 2008

Amanda Keim

Scottsdale's schools and city government have collected more bond debt than the majority of their counterparts around the state, according to a recently released report. Arizona's state and local agencies collectively reported $32.1 billion worth of bond debt in fiscal 2007, an 11 percent increase from fiscal 2006, according to figures compiled by the state Department of Revenue's Debt Oversight Commission and released by the Arizona Tax Research Association.

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Fighting a tax myth

The Arizona Republic

Saturday, November 3, 2007

Kevin J McCarthy

Recent stories regarding next Tuesday's school override and bond elections have included claims from a school-district campaign consultant that recent homeowner property taxes increased because "business taxes went down while homeowner taxes went up." This misdirection merits a response. In recent years, the Legislature did indeed enact changes to business property-tax calculations. However, the impact of those changes on homeowners was addressed in a number of ways.

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Overrides take on life of their own

East Valley Tribune

Sunday, September 16, 2007

Tammy Krikorian

Despite increased state funding for education in recent years, school districts remain dependent on having budget overrides — and asking voters to pay for the costly habit. In just about every election cycle there are East Valley school districts asking voters to approve or renew a budget override, a boost to the budget paid for through a secondary property tax.

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Report shows Yavapai cost per student highest in Az.

The Verde Independent

Friday, August 31, 2007

Philip Wright

The Arizona Tax Research Association (ATRA) released some community college per-student cost figures in July stating that Yavapai College is the highest in Arizona. Bob Lynch, chief financial officer for Yavapai College, said school officials know the college is among the highest on full-time student equivalent (FTSE) cost.

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Most districts’ budgets still mysteries

East Valley Tribune

Wednesday, July 11, 2007

Andrea Falkenhagen

With just three weeks to go until the new fiscal year, most taxpayers have yet to hear how much they’ll be paying to support East Valley classrooms. School taxes are typically the largest portion of a homeowner’s tax bill. Public education eats up 46 percent of the state budget. Yet most school districts wait until the end of June to make their proposed budgets public — giving residents just two weeks to offer input on how their tax dollars will be spent to educate children.

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