Thursday, May 5, 2016
The Arizona state Legislature has passed a $9.6 billion budget for fiscal year 2017. The spending package is an excellent one for education. This budget and passage of Proposition 123 will result in $300 million more for K-12 than we expected to have at this time last year.Right. Also, this excellent post of mine and two dollars will buy you a cup of coffee.
A job well done to the Legislature and Gov. Ducey on this budget. Now let’s take the next step and pass Proposition 123.So if Prop 123 passes and someone asks, "What's the next step you promised?" the answer may be, "You've got it backwards. Prop 123 is the next step. The first step was passing the budget."
Gov. Doug Ducey said Wednesday the $9.58 billion state budget passed earlier in the day demonstrates his commitment to education funding at all levels.Why were the Republicans able to make such a strong commitment to education, which meant not cutting K-12 schools and putting back some of the $99 million they took away from universities last year?
[Ducey] said it was easier this year than last to put money in the budget for education and other needs.It's true, the state has money to spend this year: a $600 million surplus on top of $430 million in the Rainy Day fund. And it's still sitting there, unspent.
“It’s a much different budget when you actually have some money to spend versus some of the difficult decisions we had to make over a year ago," he said.
Tags: Glenn Hamer , Arizona Chamber of Commerce and Industry , Arizona budget , Education funding , Prop 123