Arizona Capitol Times Your Inside Source for Arizona Government, Politics and Business

K-12 education in Arizona is missing a billion dollars. The phrase is repeated so frequently the media mimics it without understanding its meaning. The trouble is, it’s rhetoric — not fact.

As taxpayers in Arizona, our hard-earned money contributes to a wide range of items – employee salaries, health care, education, public safety, office supplies. The list goes on and on. While reasonable people may disagree on how our taxpayer dollars ...

Express bus service from Fountain Hills and Scottsdale to downtown Phoenix and the Capitol area is under siege.

The federal government was well-intentioned when it passed the Dodd-Frank Act in 2010 to regulate the banking industry. After all, the trauma of the Great Recession and the banks involved impacted us all.

Reliable power, affordable water and good jobs are essential elements of Arizona’s productive economy. Without these fundamentals, not much else matters.

Looking to exploit the momentum created by the recent school strike, a small coalition of liberal organizations and labor unions have launched a ballot initiative that would permanently damage Arizona’s economy.

It was a session that for all of the challenges and uncertainties included major results for Arizonans. Results that will have a lasting benefit for years to come, and that recognize the “spirit of service” is alive in our classrooms, military installations, neighborhoods, and really, all around us.

The FY19 budget is the first payment to settle a tab that was due years ago. As education advocates, we are now faced with protecting these from Arizona’s favorite political pastime — finding ways to give away revenue. Together, we must continue to do what is right for all kids in Arizona.

Solutions require a lot of different minds addressing the problem for a lot of different reasons. Recognize when you’re facing a “golden moment”–a time and place where everyone wants to see the same outcome, even if they weren’t working for the exact same reasons or in the exact same way. If the problem is addressed, recognize that as a win. You don’t all have to attend the same victory party, but you may end up inviting more new friends than you ever imagined.

The biggest victory was a grand compromise on GPLET (Government Property Lease Excise Tax) reform. A unanimous deal was struck between developers, cities and tax watchdogs on the long-term retention of the 8-year property tax abatement and narrowing the application in the future to a capped land mass contained in a central business district (CBD) within a city. HB2126 passed virtually unanimously and was signed into law by Gov. Doug Ducey on April 17. The Arizona Multihousing Association, a key coalition partner with CRE, also played an instrumental role in advancing the compromise by proposing land mass percentage boundaries for a CBD, rather than dwelling on subjective “slum” and “blight” definitions in the eyes of the beholder.