Sobering note on school funding votes

by David Safier

Dave Perry, Editor and Publisher of The Explorer, wrote an editorial about the passage and failure of school funding initiatives using the squeaker in Amphi School District as his case in point. At press time, Perry wrote, the Amphi property tax extension was up by 26 votes. Unfortunately, today's Star has it going down by 28. Either way, the people who didn't vote decided the election. [Note: the previous 2 sentences were based on an error on Wednesday's Star, which the paper has since corrected. The funding won by 28 votes.]

Amphitheater has 71,029 registered voters, according to the recorder's office. Turnout was 19,888, a respectable 28 percent of voters in an "off-year" election. Still that means more than 50,000 people didn't cast a ballot, thereby empowering the minority to make a $7.5 million annual taxation decision for the majority.

But what worries me is a fact he mentioned later. In 2005, also an off-off year vote (an odd numbered year without big name candidates), the same school district passed the same override by 2 to 1.

The change from an overwhelming victory to a squeaker that could go either way may help explain why the TUSD school measures went down so overwhelmingly. People are voting No on any kind of taxes in increasing numbers — or people who would vote Yes are staying home while those voting No are coming out in increasing numbers.

I can hear the cheering from folks on the right as I write this.

I'm hoping it's not a genuine trend at the same time I fear it is. If Arizona is willing to swallow all the new cuts which will begin in the next few weeks and continue through the next legislative session and still say, "Yeah, but I'm not voting for more taxes," this state is in some very serious trouble.

[Full disclosure: I write a weekly column in The Explorer.]