Wednesday, August 19, 2020

Arizona Supreme Court Reverses Lower Court Ruling Tossing Invest in Ed Prop off November Ballot

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Posted By on Wed, Aug 19, 2020 at 4:52 PM

click to enlarge Arizona Supreme Court Reverses Lower Court Ruling Tossing Invest in Ed Prop off November Ballot
Tori Tom
Tucson High School teachers Marea Janness (left) and Aida Castillo-Flores (right) sign up volunteers for petitioning sites at an INVESTinED gathering on June 6, 2018.


The Arizona Supreme Court will allow the Invest in Education initiative to appear on the November 2020 ballot after it was previously tossed out by a Maricopa County Superior Court Judge, who ruled its petition summary was “fraudulent or substantially confusing to Arizona voters."

The initiative proposes a 3.5 percent surcharge in state income tax on Arizona’s wealthiest residents—individuals earning more than $250,000 per year or couples earning more than $500,000 per year.


The measure could potentially raise about $940 million in tax revenue per year for the benefit of Arizona public schools and their stakeholders and would affect only the top 1 percent of Arizona earners, according to the Invest in Ed campaign.


Maricopa County Superior Court Judge Christopher Coury made the ruling to toss the initiative last month, saying that their 100-word description on petitions signed by voters didn’t include key components of what the initiative would actually do.


The Invest in Education campaign appealed his ruling, and today the Arizona Supreme Court unanimously agreed that the initiative’s description “did not create a significant danger of confusion or unfairness and reverses the trial court ruling.”


“Today’s ruling by the Arizona Supreme Court keeping Invest in Education on the November ballot is an important victory because it gives millions of Arizona voters the opportunity to put more resources into our schools,” said Invest in Education Chairwoman Amber Gould in a press release. “We are confident voters will say ‘yes’ to improving Arizona’s K-12 schools by voting ‘yes’ on Invest in Education this November. The Invest in Education Initiative was crafted to benefit all Arizona’s 1.1 million K-12 students while not taxing working and middle-class families impacted by the pandemic.”

Election officials are expected to complete a review of petition signatures for the proposition this week.


To learn more about the ballot initiative, visit investined.com.

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