Gov. Jan Brewer’s Medicaid expansion plan has no shortage of critics, but for those opponents, the Ninth Floor wants to know the answer to one question — what’s the alternative?

Secretary of State Ken Bennett complied with the law in drafting the ballot description for Proposition 204, the unsuccessful initiative that would have permanently increased the sales tax by a penny, the Arizona Supreme Court said on Jan. 17.

In a more prosperous time, the Cottonwood-Oak Creek School District in northern Arizona received a grant to buy computers.

Many of those technological wonders are still serviceable, but that’s precisely the problem. David Snyder, the district’s director of business services, said the computers are old — about seven to nine years old.

California’s Fair Political Practices Commission disclosed the source of an $11 million contribution that an Arizona-based group injected into battles over two ballot measures, and declared that the organization was responsible for campaign money laundering.

Education has always been a major part of my life. My father, Dr. George N. Smith, was a highly respected teacher and school superintendent here in Arizona for over 35 years. As the superintendent of one of the largest school districts, my father lived education – at the dinner table, at church, even at the grocery store. During his tenure, Mesa’s schools were considered to be among the finest in the nation.

The dueling campaigns over an initiative to keep a one-penny tax increase are awash with cash.

The No New Taxes, No on Prop 204 campaign has collected nearly $900,000 in October alone.

Education unions and a group representing contractors have given hundreds of thousands of dollars this month to a campaign supporting Proposition 204, while a contribution from a group representing automobile dealers is helping fuel the opposing campaign, records show.

The proposal to permanently keep a one-penny sales tax increase is in big trouble, based on the results of a recent survey among likely voters.

Supporters of the initiative to make permanent a temporary one-cent sales tax increase claimed today that its failure at the ballot in November would have dire repercussions, including the closure of schools, teacher layoffs and increases in class sizes. They also pushed back against opponents’ assertion that revenues from the tax won’t reach the classroom.

Proponents of the initiative to permanently keep a 1-cent sales tax hike are aggressively pushing back against the charge that it’s conceived and drafted by “special interests” that will reap the benefits if voters approved the measure this November.