A JLBC analysis of the Quality Education and Jobs initiative shows that, in its sixth year, the sales tax money earmarked for the “Quality Education and Performance Fund” would dry up. The analysis is based on one interpretation of how revenues from the tax increase are distributed. The proposal sets aside $500 million of the first $1 billion in revenues for the Quality Education and Performance Fund. In FY14, the first year of its implementation, that money is intact, according to the analysis. The initiative also sets aside $125 million each year to pay for inflation in the K-12 system.

The Quality Education and Jobs Committee described its filing of two versions of its one-cent sales tax initiative as a “clerical error” and a “hyper-technicality” that shouldn’t thwart the will of nearly 300,000 voters who want to see the measure on the November ballot. But Kevin McCarthy, president of the Arizona Tax Research Assn and a critic of the initiative, scoffed at the characterization, arguing the funding difference for K-12 education between the two versions is more than $600 million.

This editorial was written and originally appeared in the Sierra Vista Herald.

Sometimes the law has to be the law. It’s black and white, not gray.

That is the situation for Secretary of State Ken Bennett, who on Tuesday rejected petitions with more than 290,000 signatures from supporters of the Quality Education and Jobs initiative.

The petitions sought to put a question on the Nov. 6 ballot asking Arizonans if they want to continue the 1-cent sales tax set to expire this year.

PHOENIX (CBS5) -
The push for a permanent 1-cent sales tax in Arizona has hit a roadblock.

The secretary of state's office threw out more than 290,000 petition signatures Tuesday that would put the issue on this November's ballot.

The initiative is intended to extend the 1-cent sales tax and specifically earmark funds to public education programs hit hard by recent budget cuts.

Secretary of State Ken Bennett said that the signatures were rejected because a couple paragraphs from the original version didn't match the petition people signed.

Supporters of a sales-tax initiative that could go to voters in November plan to file suit today against the Arizona secretary of state to ensure that it does.

On Tuesday, Secretary of State Ken Bennett rejected the approximately 290,000 signatures filed Monday by the Quality Education and Jobs campaign, led by Tucsonan Ann-Eve Pedersen.

PHOENIX — Backers of extending the state’s temporary 1-cent sales tax submitted more than 290,000 signatures Monday to put the issue on the November ballot.

But at this point all they’ve really done is guaranteed a court fight.

Backers of the Quality Education and Jobs initiative said the state cannot afford to give up the $1 billion a year that will go away once the voter-approved tax ends this coming May. The measure, if approved, would make the levy permanent, with a specific set of instructions of how the money is divided.

The Secretary of State today rejected the signatures of more than 290,000 voters who signed petitions to let the public decide in November whether the state’s sales tax should be increased by one cent to pay for education and construction projects.

In a letter to the Quality Education and Jobs Committee, which is backing the initiative drive, Secretary of State Ken Bennett said its petition sheets weren’t attached to a full and correct copy of the initiative that was earlier filed with the state election office, as required by state law.

The already simmering battle over a permanent sales-tax increase heated up a few degrees Monday as supporters filed petitions to put the matter on the November ballot.
Backers of the Quality Education and Jobs initiative filed the signatures of more than 290,000 registered voters with the Arizona secretary of state. But whether the measure to permanently increase the state sales tax by 1 cent per dollar will get before voters remains unclear.

Even before any petitions have been filed, a legal fight is brewing over a proposed sales-tax hike for education.

Critics of the proposal for a permanent 1-cent-per-dollar increase in the tax noticed the petition being circulated to voters is different from the official version pre-filed earlier this year with the Arizona Secretary of State's Office.

That could bar Secretary of State Ken Bennett from accepting the petitions that the Quality Education & Jobs backers are preparing to file, Bennett spokesman Matt Roberts said.

An error by backers of a permanent one-cent hike in the state sales tax for education and public works projects could keep voters from getting a chance to decide the measure in November.

Ann-Eve Pedersen, organizer of the measure, admitted Tuesday that the paper version of the initiative pre-filed with the Secretary of State’s Office, as required by law, is different than the one being circulated on the street. Those are the petitions she intends to file next week.

But Matt Roberts, a spokesman for Secretary of State Ken Bennett, said his boss intends to turn her away.