AZ $9.6 Billion Budget Aims to Ease School Budget Cuts, Spare Tax Increases

By: Lorin McLain

Arizona’s new budget restores some funding for K through 12 education and provides tax cuts for businesses. State budget officials say the $9.6 billion state budget signed by Governor Doug Ducey this week should leave $66 million in the bank while investing in schools, child safety and public safety. It also spares any tax increases and provides $8 million in tax cuts for businesses.

A couple of measures are aimed to spare school cuts approved in the legislature last year, mostly by delaying a policy change for a year that funds schools based on current year attendance. Schools with declining enrollment were expected to lose 30 million dollars. District-sponsored charter schools are provided some relief from cuts passed by the legislature by receiving new funding written into the budget.

Funding is going into a few new education programs, including one for geographic literacy earmarked to receive $100,000. The billionaire conservative Koch Brothers are providing funding for the three so-called “freedom schools” at ASU and U of A.  The programs are aimed at advancing free-enterprise concepts. Funding allocations for the state’s public universities amount to one-time payments of $8 million for U of A, $7 million for ASU, and $4 million for NAU.

Ducey’s office says $116 million of the budget pays for a two-year initiative to stem the growth rate of children ending up in state care. Among investments are more than $5 million to hire contract workers to work on backlogged abuse and neglect cases, and close to $14 million for investigations and operations in child welfare cases. Funding includes $12.5 million for out-of-home support services,  $10.3 million for placements in foster homes, and $5 million for preventative services for families. Adoptive families and foster families are earmarked to receive more than $8 million in state funding.  Last Friday, Ducey signed a bill reviving KidsCare, which provides health insurance for more than 30-thousand children from low-income families.

The 2017 budget’s major public safety investment provides more than $26 million for a Border Strike Task Force aimed to fight drug and human smugglers. The money pays for hiring troopers and buying and maintaining equipment. The task force would be run out of the Department of Public Safety and partner with federal and county agencies on border control initiatives.

Transportation projects are getting $86.5 million dollars. Major projects funded with the help of federal money include widening I-10 near Picacho Peak, I-10 widening near the Nogales border station, and paving part of a road connecting the Hopi and Navajo reservations. Everyday Arizonans will notice a break in their fees for emissions tests.

Maricopa County drivers will see a $3 dollar reduction because of a study that found the $20 fee covered more than the contract costs.