House announces its own pay raise formula
By Carmen Forman and Ben Giles | Arizona Capitol Times
As Arizona teachers threaten to strike over low wages, Gov. Doug Ducey unveiled a revised budget proposal today that offers educators a 9-percent pay bump in the next school year.
The governor’s latest plan still won’t raise taxes to generate new revenue. And unlike a competing proposal floated by House Republican leaders, it won’t sweep money from other sources of funding proposed for K-12 schools, like the $100 million Ducey pledged to school districts for capital needs like new school buses, textbooks and facility maintenance.
Instead, Ducey’s proposal relies on a variety of sources, like higher-than-average state revenues and new dollars available from the legislative extension of the Proposition 301 education sales tax.
State budget analysts recently estimated there may be $46 million in ongoing revenues available thanks to strong revenue collections.
The governor would roll back some of his legislative initiatives, including a tax break for some veterans. He would also reapportion some funds his proposed budget earmarked for enforcement of a new, wrong-way driving law that charges drivers who go the wrong way on the highway with a felony.
