What’s on the Nov. 4 ballot? Will voting for Valley school bonds or overrides increase taxes?
Maricopa County voters are being asked to weigh in on real estate sales, bonds and overrides impacting 20 school districts. What does it all mean?
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PHOENIX – Twenty school districts and trade school West-MEC will have bonds, overrides or real estate sales on the ballot for the 2025 Maricopa County jurisdictional elections.
Bonds are borrowed money that the school district pays back over time, used for long-term projects like new buildings or physical repairs.
Meanwhile, overrides refer to voter-approved plans that use additional tax revenue to pay for short-term programs like teacher salaries or extra-curricular activities.
How would the bonds and overrides affect voters?
Superintendent of Public Instruction Tom Horne told KTAR News 92.3 FM most taxpayers won’t see an payments go up, as some increases are continuations of previously approved voter initiatives.
“A lot of times these are elections to maintain things that started earlier,” Horne said. “So, it would keep the taxes at the same level. If it’s something new, it would raise the taxes at the local level.”
Beth Lewis with Save our Schools Arizona told KTAR News 92.3 FM even if taxes do go up for some taxpayers, it would be minor.
“I personally, I looked mine up for my local district,” Lewis said. “My family’s paying $8 a month, which is like a cup of coffee a month, to serve 40,000 kids. To me, that’s well worth it. I want to have an educated populace.”
Lewis said if the bonds and overrides are not passed, teachers could leave the district, programs could close and more schools could close.
Election day is Nov. 4, and Arizonans can vote by mail, early in-person before Oct. 31 or in-person on election day. Residents who are mailing their ballot need to do so before Oct. 28.
Horne said bonds and overrides should be bipartisan, as schooling impacts parents and the future of the country.
“I think Republicans in general prefer to have the government spend less, but they like the schools that their kids are in and so often Republicans are also supportive,” Horne said.
Lewis said she spoke to voters from the Democratic, Republican and Independent parties, and explained the majority of people are interested in supporting their local schools, regardless of political views.
“I think that people kind of have a healthy sense that Arizona schools are deeply underfunded,” Lewis said. “And so, they’re willing to do their tiny part. They have this power locally at the city level, at the district level to help. And I think people feel really empowered by that.”
Funding for this journalism is made possible by the Arizona Local News Foundation.
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Comments
12 Comments
Eight dollars a month or a cup of coffee isn't much, if that's the only increase to monthly expenses. But when you zoom out, and factor in the increases to other monthly expenses, it adds up quick. Let's look at these in "cups of coffee per month" on average.
So to the one cup of coffee a month mentioned above, let's guesstimate how many other cups of coffee a month we're sacrificing with all the increases.
SRP or APS rate increases are at least one cup of coffee a month. Rates for many city utilities are another two cups of coffee or more per month, excluding the town of Gilbert because their utility increases are insane and too many cups for me to count. Health insurance premiums and prescription cost increases could be a few to several cups of coffee per month, depending.
Just for funsies, let's add in likely property tax increases as well as the usual home and auto insurance just-because rate increases of around four cups of coffee per month. Let the fun continue by including higher prices at the grocery store for food and other household necessities at a modest four to five cups of coffee a month, depending, it could be more . Prices at the pump fluctuate, so we will call it a draw there, for now.
We're still having fun, so let's add in the monthly increases to cell, internet and some streaming services for those who partake and based on the provider, it could cost another cup or two of coffee per month.
Anyone else running low on coffee?
This comment was submitted for entertainment purposes only, mainly mine. It does not reflect or purport to represent an accurate accounting of any or all costs and excludes all other persons and their unique situations.
The ONE thing that public schools in AZ are really, REALLY good at - is making vast sums of taxpayer's $$$ disappear with virtually nothing to show for it ..
Probably. The US is NO model anywhere (ok there has to be some small cities that do well)for education in public schools. but the US as a whole is getting ripped off when it comes to education. I don't know about you, but 50 years ago, in an middle class NW Chicago suburbs, the public school system was great. Not anymore. So much has gone wrong when it come to decisions and priorities.