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 State Lawmakers Whack Education And The Environment By Jim Nintzel WHEN THE ARIZONA Legislature wrapped last month, we all heard this was a banner year for education. After years of neglect, lawmakers had finally thrown some crumbs to public schools. But it now appears the Legislature didn't do such a bang-up job after all, because we've suddenly got these short-term shortfalls. In the last couple of weeks, we've learned the Department of Education has a $10 to $20 million shortfall in its operations budget--the dollars used to pay teacher salaries and buy supplies. Unless lawmakers have a special session by June 11, school districts statewide will suffer a 10 percent cut in the money they were expecting for the month of June.
The Schools Facilities Board created under Students First identified at least $103.7 million in needed repairs statewide, but lawmakers budgeted only $75 million for the program--a $28.7 million shortfall. Bad enough that the Legislature took years to create this system. To shortchange it now is utterly disgraceful. Add the two funding problems together, and you get a shortfall of as high as $48.7 million in education funding. The news of the shortfall comes on the heels of the release of Kids Count, another grim national survey showcasing Arizona's miserable record when it comes to children. Overall, according to 1996 figures, Arizona ranked 46th out of 50 when it comes to taking care of our kids. Twenty-eight percent of Arizona families with children are headed by a single parent. Roughly 26 percent of Arizona's children live in poverty. (The national average is 20 percent.) And 23 percent of kids have no health insurance (national average: 14 percent). Only two states had a higher teen birth rate than Arizona, where 49 out of every 1,000 girls between 15 and 17 had children, compared to a national average of 34. Arizona ranks 41st in the country in child death rates. The suicide rate for Arizona teens is twice the national average. And still, despite our robust economy, we shortchange our schools. Lawmakers are balking at calling a special session to find the dollars to fund and repair our schools. One obstacle: House members gripe they'd be hampered by the renovation currently underway at the House of Representatives. YOU MIGHT SAY it was a banner year for the environment, since only a few polluter-friendly measures passed. "Despite their best effort, the Arizona Legislature did little environmental damage this year," noted Sierra Club lobbyist Sandy Bahr when she released the organization's report card on the 1999 session. "Of course, the bad news is we are not making progress strengthening environmental protection either. That's how we count environmental victories at the state Legislature: not by how well we've managed to establish progressive policies to protect our rapidly vanishing desert, but by how well we managed to avoid giving away what's left to stucco homes and hazwaste sites. There were plenty of bad bills that emerged from the House of Representatives, where 40 Republicans outnumbered 20 Democrats. But most of them were stopped in the Senate, which had a closer split with 16 Republicans and 14 Democrats. A few vetoes by Republican Gov. Jane Dee Hull also helped flush a few bad bills. Still, a few cruddy bills got through, such as House Bill 2643, which allows polluters to claim a financial hardship and settle damages before the Department of Environmental Quality manages to determine the extent of the pollution. Taxpayers are left on the hook for environmental clean-up costs. And, in a complex legal tangle, the Legislature is still hell-bent on giving up the state's right to streambeds. Last year, lawmakers passed a bill surrendering those rights, which is being challenged in state court by the Attorney General's Office and environmental groups. This year, instead of waiting to see the court's ruling, lawmakers passed another version of the bill, which Hull signed into law.
The Sierra Club's report card was based on 19 bills, with votes
weighted in regard to the relative importance of the legislation.
Five Southern Arizona lawmakers flunked: Rep. Bill McGibbon (R-District
9), Rep. Lou-Ann Preble (R-District 9), Rep. Dan Schottel (R-District
12), Rep. Steve Huffman (R-District 12) and Rep. Kathleen Dunbar
(R-District 13). McGibbon and Schottel, who both hope to win state
Senate seats next year, had the worst scores; out of a possible
40 points, Schottel had only eight, while McGibbon picked up just
one point during the entire session.
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Meanwhile, there's another tangle in the brand-new Students First
program. It took state lawmakers four years to create the Students
First program after the state Supreme Court ordered the Legislature
to fix Arizona's ridiculous reliance on property taxes, which
left wealthy schools with domed stadiums and poor districts lucky
to have a trailer and a swamp box.
