By Howard Fischer | Capitol Media Services via Arizona Capitol Times
Gov. Doug Ducey acted illegally in pushing his 2016 plan to take money for K-12 education out of a trust account without first getting congressional approval, a federal judge has ruled.
In a sharply worded ruling, U.S. District Court Judge Neil Wake said Ducey crafted a plan to take more than $2 billion out of the school trust fund over a decade to make up for the fact that the state had ignored voter-mandated requirements to properly fund schools. That plan became Proposition 123 which voters approved in 2016.
But Wake said that the state did not first obtain congressional approval for the shift.
That, he argued, is necessary because the federal Enabling Act that made Arizona (and New Mexico) into a state in 1912 gave it lands to hold in trust for schools.
More to the point, that law allows the state to use only the interest off the money earned. The idea was to preserve the body of the trust and the interest that would earn for future generations.
But Wake said Proposition 123, crafted by Ducey as a method to settle a lengthy lawsuit over school funding, clearly ran afoul of that law.
