CCUSD not crying wolf this time on override
By Linda Bentley |
June 24, 2009
Tax assessors crying foul over SB 1036
CCUSD – While waiting for the state legislature to finalize a budget that the governor will agree not to veto, school districts plod along in uncertainty preparing for the unknown as the fiscal year draws to a close at the end of the month. The new school year begins just a little over a month from then.
The district still doesn’t know if it will need to close a school, whether class sizes will need to increase or how many employees really need to be terminated. However, because of statutorily mandatory deadlines for closing schools and notifying teachers and ancillary staff of reductions in force (RIF), the district has blindly started the process for closing Desert Arroyo Middle School, sending 87 employees RIF notices, just in case.
On June 9, the Cave Creek Unified School District governing Board unanimously voted in favor of a resolution calling to place the renewal of K-3 override, currently in its last year of full funding, on the Nov. 3 ballot.
The override allows the district to budget an additional 5 percent of two-thirds of the K-8 portion of the district’s budget, roughly $1 million.
This year, school district budgets have been further hampered, not just by the economy and state deficit, but by bickering between the legislature and Governor Jan Brewer, who, with only a week left before the start of the new fiscal year, is now suing the legislature for not sending her their final budget, which she planned to veto.
The 2009/2010 school year, which ends in June 2010, is the fifth and final year of the override’s full funding before it is reduced by one third per year until gone.
Overrides can only be placed on the ballot in November. If approved, the district will retain that full funding for another five years.
District taxpayers were originally told the K-3 override was intended to fund all-day kindergarten, because, at the time, Governor Janet Napolitano was only providing such funding to districts with the highest rates of Title I (eligible for free and reduced lunches) students, placing CCUSD near the bottom of the list for funding.
However, the very next year, Napolitano approved funding statewide for all-day kindergarten.
So, CCUSD was receiving override money in addition to state funding, seemingly for the same purpose.
Sonoran News recently learned, however, there are no such things as kindergarten, K-5, K-6 or K-8 overrides, there is only a K-3 override and an M&O (maintenance and operations) override, which is a 10 percent override of the entire K-12 budget.
Meanwhile, CCUSD knows there will be budget reductions, it just doesn’t know the extent. It is counting on the override’s passage to soften the blow.
Cave Creek resident Stephen Hart, an attorney with Lewis & Rocha LLP, recently formed a political action committee (PAC) called “Learn Yes!” in support of the K-3 override.
A recent press release announcing the PAC stated, “The third time’s a charm,” citing previous efforts to continue the K-3 override fell short the past two years.
Hart says, “Things are different this time. Instead of a handful of people starting in the fall, we’re starting in June with around 50 campaign workers and we’re growing every day,” adding, “We’re going to win this crucial election.”
According to Hart, the override pays for instructional materials and the salaries of about 15 teachers.
Learn Yes! spokesperson Greg Smith said, “Hard-working volunteers got close the past two years but they didn't have enough help to get over the finish line. We're hitting the reset button and going beyond flyers and election signs. We're taking it to a new level.”
Smith also believes this year’s budget woes might actually help the campaign's chances and said, “It’s been decades since Arizonans have heard so much about the state’s neglect of education.”
If the override should fail, Smith said the district plans to shift teachers from higher grades to reduce the damage at lower grades and stated, “Expect larger class sizes at all grades if this goes down.”
At the time the press release was drafted, Smith said taxes are expected to continue being approximately $20 per year for a home valued at $500,000, “or the price of two cheese pizzas.”
However, on June 19, an Open Letter to the Citizens of Arizona by the Arizona Association of Assessing Officers, signed by all 15 county tax assessors, wrote, “As elected officials on the front line of the property tax issue we need to bring to the public’s attention one of the most important tax policy changes in recent history. In Senate Bill 1036, a companion bill to the state’s budget, the Arizona Legislature is proposing to redistribute a substantial portion of the current tax burden from commercial and vacant land property owners and place it on residential property owners for voter-approved bonds and overrides.”
In other words, homeowners will experience a property tax increase while commercial property owners will enjoy a tax decrease for all future bonds and overrides against the status quo.”
When all of the state’s elected county assessors asked the new leadership to form a group to examine the property tax structure, which they believe needs to be examined in its entirety, they were told to wait for an appropriate time. They’re still waiting.
In closing, the letter stated, “[I]f the Arizona Legislature believes this major tax policy change is the right thing to do, then they ought to have the courage to have an open public discussion on the subject. The citizens of this great state deserve no less.”