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.

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.

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.

A conservative think tank and a taxpayer-advocacy organization have backed off plans to sue the Tucson Unified School District in an attempt to clamp down on the millions of dollars it gets every year in desegregation funding.


The Goldwater Institute and the Arizona Tax Research Association had been readying for a bid to challenge the constitutionality of the district's levy to help bring schools into racial balance, preparing to argue that it's illegal to levy unlimited property taxes for an unlimited time without voter approval.

The economy apparently was on voters' minds Tuesday when they walked into Valley voting booths to address school-district spending through bonds and budget overrides.


Valley voters supported only 20 of the 36 school-district bonds and budget overrides on the ballot in Maricopa County, according to unofficial results. That was down considerably from last year, when voters supported 28 of 31 budget measures. Voters' action comes amid a period of deep cuts to state education spending because of the state budget crisis.

The Arizona Republic's report of a charter school under investigation for inappropriately receiving state funds for educating private-school students highlights a pervasive problem throughout Arizona's school-finance system.

Lawmakers may shift the responsibility for education funding to local property owners as a way of coping with staggering budget deficits in the near future, even though it would translate to higher property taxes.


“It may have to be (an option) because I just don’t know where we’re going to find money,” said Rep. John Kavanagh, a Fountain Hills Republican. He chairs the Appropriations Committee in the House of Representatives.


“We may well have to require local governments and taxpayers to pick up more of the burden.”

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.

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.

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.


But the way the money has been collected is constitutionally iffy, with school districts given free rein to dip into taxpayers' pockets with no limits and no voter approval.