Your Turn: Arizona teacher pay is not the lowest. Stop saying it is

https://www.azcentral.com/story/opinion/op-ed/2018/03/12/arizona-teache…

Arizona Republic readers who followed the teacher strike in West Virginia must be confused given the consistent drumbeat peddled here that Arizona has the worst teacher pay in the country.

While Arizona should attempt to drive additional dollars to classrooms to pay teachers competitive wages, there’s no reason for advocates to twist data to suggest we’re last in teacher pay.

2018: Arizona wrestles with blocking taxes on cloud offerings, digital streams

https://www.bizjournals.com/phoenix/news/2018/03/11/arizona-wrestles-wi…

Arizona lawmakers are wading into some uncharted waters in deciding whether to tax digital streaming services and cloud technology and software.

Their actions could impact taxes on Microsoft office products, streaming services such as Netflix (Nasdaq; NFLX) and music services such as Spotify.

2018: Property tax break fight finds some common ground

The Arizona House of Representatives approved 58-0 a bill adding some new reforms to property tax breaks that cities offer to developers and businesses.

House Bill 2126 ended up being a compromise measure between fiscal conservatives, real estate groups and cities over Government Property Lease Excise Taxes. or GPLETs.

GPLETs involve city governments owning land but leasing it to private developers and businesses who then pay lower property taxes than if they owned it outright.

District spent on desegregation without programs in place

The Roosevelt Elementary School District levied and spent $13.5 million earmarked for desegregation activities, but without operating any specific programs for that purpose, according to the an Arizona Auditor General’s Office report on the district’s spending in fiscal year 2016.

The auditor found that the district spent $13.3 million on salaries and benefits for teachers and other instructional staff, and the remaining $200,000 was spent on administration.

Big fight pits Legislature vs. universities over real estate deals, tax breaks

https://www.bizjournals.com/phoenix/news/2018/02/02/big-fight-pits-legi…

A bill making its way through the Arizona Legislature puts restrictions on real estate deals crafted by state universities.

It sets up another big political fight between the Republican Legislature and state universities — specifically Arizona State University.