KPHO 5 asks: Did You Get What You Paid For With Prop. 100?

Posted by AzblueMeanie:

KPHO 5 in Phoenix asks: Did You Get What You Paid For With Prop. 100? (You already knew the answer when you voted for it):

On May 18, 2010, Arizona voters overwhelmingly approved a sales tax increase with two-thirds of the money going towards K-12 education.

Now, one year later, we wanted to know if you got what you paid for.

"The campaign was very clear, the proposition money would help stop cuts," said Democratic State Sen. Kyrsten Sinema.

Sinema thinks the public was deceived because Republican lawmakers and Gov. Jan Brewer cut $200 million more from public schools this legislative session.

• VIDEO: Did You Get What You Paid For With Prop. 100? (no embed)

"It helped reduce the deficit, but that's not what the money was intended for," said Sinema.

Gov. Brewer disagrees, saying the cuts to education would have been a lot worse if not for Prop. 100.

"We brought in about $800 million dollars with Prop. 100, and two-thirds of that amount went to education. That's money we would have had to otherwise cut," said Brewer. [Because we refuse to raise any taxes, other than regressive sales taxes.]

Brewer said she understands the importance of education to the future stability of Arizona's economy.

Still, she would not guarantee that she won't approve more cuts to education next year.

Next year's budget is already projected to have a deficit due to the end of federal stimulus funds to the state, thanks to the Tea-Publicans in Congress. Governor Brewer can guarantee more cuts to education next year, she just won't say it.