By Lily Altavena | Arizona Republic
Arizona Supreme Court justices voted 5-2 to remove an education tax measure born out of May’s teacher walkout, #InvestInEd, from the November ballot.
Justices Robert Brutinel, John Pelander, Clint Bolick, Andrew Gould and John Lopez voted to knock the measure off the ballot, while Chief Justice Scott Bales and Ann Timmer dissented.
“Although our decisions safeguard the voters’ legislative power, this Court in many cases has invalidated citizen initiatives and referenda that did not comply with applicable requirements,” the justices wrote in their opinion.
The justices wrote that the act failed to fully outline how the measure “fails to mention that the measure modifies the inflation indexing of income tax rates that was adopted in 2015, thus exposing most taxpayers to tax increases.”
The average Arizonan would have seen about a $16 tax increase due to that, had the proposal taken effect as written.
The opinion has raised questions over the independence of Arizona’s judicial branch. Last month, Republican Gov. Doug Ducey’s campaign staff told 12 News reporter Brahm Resnik the vote was 5-2 a day after the ruling. Now the opinion has confirmed that vote tally.
