Arizona lawmakers plan to ask voters to approve teacher raises

PHOENIX — Republican lawmakers are pushing a plan to tap the state land trust to provide $4,000-a-year pay raises for teachers.

Proponents said the proposal, which would need to be approved by voters next year, would boost average teacher pay in Arizona to more than $60,000 a year. That is slightly higher than the current national average.

The starting pay would hit an average of $44,415, a figure Senate President Warren Petersen said would be the 14th highest in the country.

The plan would be set up so the proceeds from the land trust could be spent only on teacher pay.

Petersen noted that lawmakers approved a plan in 2018, though not using trust funds, to boost teacher pay by 20% over four years. But he said a study by the state Auditor General’s Office found the average salary hike was just 16%.

“Many school districts did not do the right thing,’’ the Gilbert Republican said at a news conference Monday to announce the new pay-raise proposal.

State Schools Chief Tom Horne, also a Republican, said he believes the $300 million the plan would raise would help the state attract and retain teachers.

He said Arizona loses about 40% of its teachers in the first four years and another 23% in years five through nine.

“We lose good teachers to surrounding states that can afford to pay more,’’ Horne said. “We can’t afford to do that.’’

They’ll pitch it to voters essentially as free money, with no tax increase.

The federal government gave Arizona 10 million acres when it became a state in 1912, with the restriction that it be held for the benefit of certain beneficiaries, mostly public schools.

Some of that state trust land has been sold off for development. About 9.2 million acres remain, available for lease for farming, commercial use and grazing.

Earnings from the trust go to the beneficiaries. Schools also get 2.5% annually from what is in the trust.

Lawmakers in the Legislature’s GOP majority propose to increase the amount of money that can be taken from the corpus — the body of the trust — each year to 6.9%, with the estimated $300 million in proceeds specifically earmarked for teacher pay.

The idea is not new. Voters narrowly approved a similar measure in 2016.

Pushed by then-Gov. Doug Ducey, Proposition 123 permitted the state to take an extra $3.5 billion from the trust over 10 years. Those dollars were earmarked to end a lawsuit filed against the state for ignoring a voter mandate to boost aid to education annually to account for inflation.

The money still being taken out of the trust will no longer be needed after that measure expires on June 30, 2025, said Rep. Matt Gress, R-Phoenix, who was Ducey’s chief financial officer at the time.

The new proposal would pick up on July 1, 2025, where Prop. 123 leaves off, continuing the same extra withdrawals from the trust, but this time with the money solely going to teacher salaries.

Petersen acknowledged that the program is built on the premise the trust will earn enough money — even with the withdrawals — to continue to generate not only the regular revenues for K-12 education but the additional dollars for teacher pay. He said he’s confident the numbers will hold up.

“This was feared last time,’’ he said when there were people who doubted the financial stability of Proposition 123. They included Jeff DeWit, currently chairman of the Arizona Republican Party, who at the time was the state treasurer.

“Not only was it unfounded, not only were they wrong, but the fund nearly doubled,’’ even with the extra withdrawals, Petersen said. “We also project that the fund will continue to grow.’’

And if it doesn’t? Gress said the measure will be structured so if the additional withdrawals don’t cover the promised salary hikes the difference will have to be made up from the state budget. The bottom line, he said, is that if voters approve the measure next year, the additional wages will continue regardless of the trust balance.

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For how long remains to be decided. Gress said there are negotiations underway to determine whether it would be eight or 10 years.

In either case, any pay boost beyond its expiration date would either require lawmakers to absorb the cost in the regular state budget or get new voter approval.

There was no immediate response from Democratic Gov. Katie Hobbs, whose press aide Christian Slater said she is waiting to see details.

Whatever Hobbs decides is legally irrelevant, though, as this measure would go directly to voters. The governor has no veto power over such referrals.

There was less hesitation from Marisol Garcia, president of the Arizona Education Association.

“Finally, this is a priority of the Republicans,’’ she said. “Can’t wait to sit down with Rep. Gress and have some conversations with him.’’

Still, Garcia wants more specifics. “The devil is always in the details,’’ she said.

One of those details, however, is who will be included.

“Our education support professionals are seriously underpaid,’’ Garcia said, saying this should extend to custodians, bus drivers, librarians and counselors.

Gress said that’s not going to happen.

“The highest vacancies, the hardest positions to fill are classroom teachers,’’ he said.

And there’s another X factor: Will the voters approve.

Proposition 123 passed by a margin of 51%-49%.

But Garcia pointed out that measure was driven not by teachers but by Ducey, even though the Arizona Education Association was in support.

“I think voters always want to support public education,’’ Garcia said. This time, she said, teachers should be “able to sit at the table with these folks and do it appropriately.’’

“We want to do anything we can to get our salaries fixed,’’ she said.

Petersen acknowledged that, even with the increases, there will be other states in the area that will pay more. So would a $4,000 boost be enough?

“That’s a great question,’’ he said. “But this is a big effort and a big move. And what it is is a huge move in the right direction.’’

He also said it’s not just about salaries. “Arizona has a lot of things, I think, that are much better than other states. We’re always one of the states with the highest growth. So I believe this, combined with all the great things we offer, will definitely encourage us to have more teachers.’’

Gress had a legislative proposal this past session to fund $10,000 pay raises for teachers. It cleared the House but got tangled up in budget negotiations.