Arizona 's school districts scored a major victory Wednesday, but critics quickly claimed it will come at the expense of taxpayers.


In a lawsuit filed by six school districts, including Mesa , Chandler and Cave Creek, a Maricopa County Superior Court judge ruled the state Legislature violated the Arizona Constitution last year when it froze the amount of money school districts could seek from local taxpayers for excess utility costs.

Yuma Elementary School District 1 is the only local district that has successfully passed budget overrides since the state Legislature created them in 1985.


Next Tuesday, the question will appear on the ballot for the sixth time for voters within the district to allow a property tax increase to help maintain teachers' competitive salaries.

If funding from the Legislature doesn't change, it won't be the last time the question is proposed to voters, according to school officials.

Health care companies and firms related to the construction industry have contributed nearly $160,000 to a campaign aimed at passing a nearly $1 billion community college bond measure Nov. 2. The figure is nearly half of the money collected so far.


Bond money from Proposition 401 would pay for among other things construction of a nursing and biomedical facility, a health care training center, more than a million square feet of classroom and lab space, and building refurbishment at 10 colleges.

The Maricopa Community College District is asking voters for $951 million in bonds that would cost property taxpayers $1,436,881,730 in principal and interest. The Arizona Tax Research Association (ATRA) is urging voters to deny this extraordinary request.

Some of the largest Valley school districts have bonds on the Nov. 2 ballot to fix schools, buy buses and add classrooms.


Scottsdale Unified, Deer Valley Unified, Chandler Unified and Madison Elementary are among the seven school districts with bonds on the general election ballot.

Bonds are paid for through property taxes and must be approved by voters in a school district.

Political strategists say that a crowded general election ballot could work in bonds' favor or against them.

The Maricopa County Community College District plans $87 million in improvements for Chandler-Gilbert Community College if voters approve a $951.36 million bond request in the general election Nov. 2.


"People say they support the community colleges, so they need to know that a vote for Proposition 401 - at the bottom of the ballot - will support them," said Jay Thorne, spokesman for a citizens committee to promote the proposition. "Chandler-Gilbert Community College is the fastest-growing of the (Maricopa Community Colleges)."

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.