Educators protest at Arizona Supreme Court after measure pulled from ballot

PHOENIX — One day after the Arizona Supreme Court knocked an initiative to raise taxes on the wealthy to fund public education off the November ballot, a group of educators gathered in front of the Phoenix building in protest.

The protest, organized by a chapter of the Arizona Education Association, was held in response to the striking down of the Invest In Education Act.

“We can’t waste a second not mobilizing in response to this terrible decision made by the Supreme Court of Arizona,” organizer Noah Karvelis said in a Facebook video that was posted ahead of the protest.

The initiative was removed from the ballot on Wednesday after a majority of the state Supreme Court found that the measure’s description of the change in tax rates creates a danger of confusion or unfairness. The order reversed a lower-court ruling earlier this month that rejected the legal challenge to the measure.

The proposal sought to raise the income tax rate to eight percent for individuals earning more than $250,000 and households earning more than $500,000 for the portion of their income above those cutoffs.

Individuals who earn more than $500,000 and households who earn more than $1 million would pay nine percent above those cutoffs.

“Invest in Education was struck down by the AZ Supreme Court protecting the wealthy over the needs of children and the rights of voters,” the description on an Facebook event read.

“Join us to protest the AZ Supreme Court: wear red, bring your signs, protest, get registered to vote, get trained on voter registration, write letters to your elected officials and build community with other education supporters.”

The group of protesters was met by a small group of counter-protesters with Patriot Movement Arizona.

Glenn Hamer, the president and CEO of the Arizona Chamber of Commerce, told KTAR News 92.3 FM that he believed the court ruled in the “correct” way.

“It’s not going to be on the ballot because the drafters botched how they put together the initiative and how they described it,” he said.

“The drafters made two huge fundamental mistakes: They removed an inflation index for a middle-class tax relief provision that would’ve meant $1.25 billion of increased taxes for all Arizona workers over 10 years,” Hamer added.

“And No. 2, the way they described the initiative, they grossly understated the increase it would mean to tax rates for many individuals, as well as about 40,000 small businesses.”

Hamer said state officials will work to put together the “right plan” to fund public education in Arizona.

“This initiative would have caused great harm to an economy that’s doing very well and would’ve undermined a lot of the reform that was in Prop. 301,” he said.

“This was the wrong plan; we’re going to work to put together the right plan for Arizona.”

KTAR News 92.3 FM’s Griselda Zetino and The Associated Press contributed to this report. 

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