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.
Read More »Pima County officials see legal trouble in desegregation tax 
Pima County officials say a new state law dictating how to collect taxes for desegregation funding in Tucson puts the county at legal risk.
Read More »Budget includes property tax increase for some school districts 
Homeowners in more than a dozen Arizona school districts will pay additional property taxes if GOP lawmakers approve a maneuver in Gov. Doug Ducey’s budget deal.
Read More »Bill creates needed framework to tax digital goods and software
Did anyone else notice their bill for cloud storage went up last year because a sales tax (TPT) suddenly appeared? As an association who follows state tax law closely, we wondered what law or rule changed. It turns out nothing changed. Bureaucrats at the state simply decided to start taxing the cloud.
Read More »Bill to force schools to sell buildings to charters sparks debate 
The will of taxpayers is being evoked by both sides in the debate over a bill that would require school districts to sell property to charter or private schools when they are the highest bidders.
Read More »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.
Read More »Public school advocates hold some inequities sacrosanct
The annual knife fight over available revenues in the state budget is often an exercise in directing dollars toward a specific constituency. $38 million dollars into the base for K-12 education is swallowed by the enormity of the $10 billion system and is lost in the rounding.
Read More »Maricopa Community Colleges chief resigns to lead non-profit 
The chancellor for the Maricopa County Community College District announced his resignation Wednesday to move on to running a Chandler-based education non-profit organization.
Read More »Tax watchdog pushes bill to ban promotional expenditures 
A tax watchdog is behind legislation that forbids political subdivisions from running promotional campaigns during elections to raise taxes.
Read More »An honest discussion is needed on Medicaid expansion
Far from a “relatively minor expansion” of 57,000 Arizonans, Gov. Jan Brewer’s proposal could add as many as 450,000 people to AHCCCS. In addition to the expansion population, we will be adding those formerly eligible people who were frozen out in 2010.
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