Senate President Ken Bennett says he will push to have proposed additional funding for the state Land Department tied to a dramatic increase of trust land sales in the Phoenix area to produce more money for public schools.

Mr. Bennett said performance measures to require actual sales of land, not just planning for disposition, should be added to legislation to provide the Land Department with a $6 million funding boost.

Mr. Bennett, R-1, described his initiative in an interview with The Associated Press on Feb. 28.

One week earlier, other legislators and interest-group advocates said the collapse of a sweeping package of trust land changes had possibly doomed comprehensive efforts during the current session to benefit education funding, preservation of open space and planned development around urban areas.

With the collapse of the comprehensive package, the only legislation still in motion is the proposed $6 million increase in Land Department funding for administration, management, planning and disposition of trust land.

The federal government gave Arizona more than 10 million acres at statehood to hold in trust for the benefit of K-12 schools, universities and other public institutions. Money from land sales goes into an investment fund to benefit the trust.

Bennett: Missed Opportunities

Mr. Bennett said the state’s slow pace in trust land sales in the Phoenix area had resulted in leapfrogged development and missed opportunities to raise additional money for education.

“I would like to suggest we need to sell more land from the trust land inventory so that we can take advantage of the value and get that value into the trust fund sooner rather than later so that the land trust fund can earn money sooner rather than later,” he said.

Mr. Bennett said he doesn’t want to “flood the market and depress prices but maybe we need to be talking 10,000 acres a year instead of 2,000.”

Calls for preservation of some trust land as open space might be answered at the local government level when developers seek planning and zoning approvals for newly acquired trust land, according to Mr. Bennett.

“Maybe we can kill two birds with one stone — get the preservation and conservation but also a much quicker return on our investment,” he said.

K-12 schools could use more dollars for English-language instruction, all-day kindergarten and other special funding categories, Mr. Bennett said.

“Right now the only way you solve inequities with a fixed pot of money is to take from the haves and give to the have-nots, which you cannot do politically,” he said, also ruling out a tax increase.

Legislation Looms

Mr. Bennett’s spokesman Nick Simonetta said there’s a strong possibility that Mr. Bennett’s initiative will be introduced as legislation when the Senate Appropriations Committee considers the $6 million funding boost for the Land Department.

Earlier on Feb. 28, that measure’s sponsor said efforts to win approval of broader legislation on trust land changes would fly in the face of circumstances that doomed the earlier effort and “splintered” the coalition pushing it.

“As of right now, we’re not there,” said Sen. Jake Flake, R-5.

Also on Feb. 28, Sen. Carolyn Allen, R-8, said she and Rep. Tom O’Halleran, R-1, were working on a trust land proposal to present to conservationists and other interest groups to see if there’s interest in an initiative campaign to put a package on the 2006 ballot.

The previous effort at producing legislation in the current session “was poorly managed,” Ms. Allen said. —