Gov. Brewer: state will appeal education funding ruling

Last week, the Maricopa County Superior Court ruled against our lawless legislature and governor. the Arizona Republic reported, Arizona schools win $1.6 billion in court fight:

Arizona’s public schools are due an additional $317 million in funding for the coming budget year, a court ruled Friday, a decision that could cost the state an extra $1.6 billion over the next five years.

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The Ruling on school funding (.pdf) by Maricopa County Superior Court Judge Kathleen Cooper comes after the state Supreme Court last year ruled the Legislature failed to honor the direction voters gave in 2000, when they approved a ballot measure calling for annual inflation adjustments to the school-funding formula.

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Cooper, following the direction set by the Supreme Court, ordered the state to adjust base funding for schools in the coming fiscal year to $3,560 per student, a collective increase of about $317 million.

Earlier this week, the House Democratic Caucus of the Arizona legislature asked the governor for a special session to rework the state budget to comply with the court’s order. House Democrats urge Brewer to call education special session. House Minority Leader Bruce Wheeler told me the governor’s response was effectively “No. Not going to happen.”

A certain irresponsible columnist at the Arizona Republic, George Will’s mini-me Robert Robb, suggested our lawless legislature and governor have 4 legislative options on education funding lawsuit:

• The Legislature could comply with the court order – not!
• The governor and Legislature could appeal the decision and seek a stay pending appeal.
• Third, the Legislature could sidestep the decision by technically complying in a way that doesn’t greatly increase state appropriations to schools.
• Fourth, the Legislature could just ignore the decision. (No really, the guy who fantasizes that Obama has committed impeachable offenses advises our own GOP legislature and governor to just ignore a lawful court order. IOKIYAR.)

Our lawless legislature and governor have selected what is behind Door Number 2. “Tell us what fabulous prize our contestant has won.”

Our lawless legislature and governor want to kick the can down the road past the November election and into the next legislature. They are pissing away your tax dollars defending their lawless actions, which they have already lost in the appellate courts. Brewer: State will appeal judge’s ruling on funds owed to public schools:

Gov. Jan Brewer said Thursday that the state will appeal a court ruling requiring Arizona to immediately increase funding for Arizona’s K-12 system, signaling that schools may not see the $1.6 billion owed to them ­anytime soon.

Brewer’s remarks were the first indication from state officials of how they plan to deal with last week’s ruling that requires state lawmakers to pay charter- and public-school districts about $317 million a year over the next five years.

School officials believe the ruling requires the state to ­begin payments immediately.

“Obviously, we are appealing that,” Brewer said at a news conference. “It would be absolutely devastating to the state of Arizona, to public safety and the rest of our ­budget.”

The Maricopa County ­Superior Court ruling carried out the findings of the Arizona Supreme Court, which determined last fall that the Legislature had failed to honor the direction of voters in 2000 when they approved a ballot measure calling for annual inflation adjustments to the school-funding formula.

Judge Katherine Cooper determined that payments totaling $1.6 billion over the next five years would reset the starting point for per-student school funding. An appeal of the decision could be months away.

Cooper is expected today to schedule a hearing for this fall on the unresolved question of whether the state also should have to pay schools an additional $1.3 billion for inflation costs that lawmakers didn’t fund during the Great Recession.

The schools are pushing Cooper to immediately sign a judgment requiring the state Department of Education to begin paying on the $1.6 billion.

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Brewer and state lawmakers fighting the ruling are expected to ask the judge to hold off until the inflation issue is resolved.

They would then appeal the entire thing, and they could ask the judge to halt any required payments until the appeal is resolved.

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Chris Thomas, general counsel for the Arizona School Boards Association, called the appeal decision “disappointing” but said state officials would need a court to block the funding boost by issuing a stay, something he called unlikely given that the schools have won unanimous decisions from the appeals court and the state Supreme Court in the long-running case.

“Our bottom line is the reset will happen,” he said.

But, he added, the schools can be flexible on how that funding plays out.

The expected appeal could push payments — and where to find that money in a budget that Republicans say is headed into the red over the next couple of years — to next year and the next governor.

Exactly. Our lame-duck governor will be working the conservative speaking tour circuit by then raising money for her political action committee Jan PAC. What the hell does she care? “Not my problem.”

If you want to short-circuit this corrupt abuse of the court system and to restore education funding, you have a ready remedy: elect a Democratic governor, Fred DuVal, and elect Democrats to the state legislature. They will end these frivolous appeals pissing away your tax dollars, and they will find a way to comply with a lawful court order.

UPDATE: On Friday, Judge Cooper set aside a week beginning October 27 to decide the question of the $1.3 billion in back payments. The judge also ordered that the parties have until July 28 to file written objections to her entering an immediate judgment on her earlier ruling in the case.

The Arizona Capitol Times (subscription required) reports Court will consider back pay for public schools in October:

[T]here was no discussion of a possible appeal during the 20-minute telephonic conference of lawyers.

But Gov. Jan Brewer said July 17 the state intends to appeal Cooper’s ruling.

Peters said the state can’t appeal until Cooper enters judgment, but the state could theoretically appeal immediately under a special action, a quicker but more difficult route.

Cooper set an evidentiary hearing on the withheld inflationary payments for the week of Oct. 27.

Peters argued in writing to Cooper that the hearing should go forward even if her July 11 ruling to reset the per-pupil funding level is appealed because the issues in the ruling don’t overlap with the issues that are the subject of the hearing.

The solution is to bifurcate the judgment; enter judgment now on the part of the case already decided, and argue the $1.3 billion in back payments separately. The judge indicated that “she was inclined to enter the judgment sooner rather than later .”