AZ budget deal on thin ice as lawmakers push school funding

PHOENIX — Efforts to enact a $9.58 billion spending plan for the state crumbled late Friday as House Republican leaders gave up for the weekend.

The hang-up came as some moderate Republicans pushing for more funding for public schools could not get the language they wanted to guarantee the additional dollars into the budget. And without their support, the GOP leadership found itself without the necessary 31 votes for approval.

That breakdown came despite the fact that there was a deal, at least on paper.

Both Gov. Doug Ducey and Republican leadership had agreed to restore funding that a previously pushed budget plan had cut from schools. That includes a $31 million reduction in aid to schools due to a change in how the state would compute each district’s number of students.

But that concession, by itself, was not enough to satisfy foes.

Rep. Heather Carter, R-Cave Creek, said there was only a “conceptual agreement” to restore K-12 funds. What she had as of late Friday was still only “some bullet points on a sheet.” And Carter told colleagues that wasn’t enough to get her vote.

“What I would respectfully ask is for the language to be drafted, handed out, with enough time for the stakeholders to review the language so that we make sure that there isn’t an unintended mistake,” she said.

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Rep. Chris Ackerley, R-Sahuarita, who also said his vote on the budget is contingent on satisfactory restoration of the K-12 funds, was more succinct about wanting to know what is being promised. “I’m not saying yes to a concept,” he said.

The issue of K-12 funding is just part of the roadblock to getting the House to approve the budget.

Rep. Noel Campbell, R-Prescott, raised questions about another provision in the package that would have the state set aside more than $100 million that charter schools could use as a guarantee of sorts to lenders that their loans would be paid.

Campbell said he has no problem with the concept of reducing borrowing costs so that high-quality charter schools, even if operated by for-profit corporations, could finance expansion.

But he said there’s no reason the state should be in the business of providing payment guarantees so that a company could simply refinance its debt at a lower rate and pocket the difference in profits.

But that’s only part of his concern.

“What is the guarantee the state will be paid back (the payments it made) if the charter school goes belly-up?” Campbell asked.