Former Gov. Jan Brewer Takes Current Gov. Doug Ducey To Task For Fiscally Irresponsible ‘Flat Tax’ Proposal

Oh God, she’s baaack! In 2011, then Governor Jan Brewer signed off on then House Speaker Kirk Adams’ four year phased-in corporate welfare tax giveaway plan, while state revenues were still devastated from the Great Recession (2007-2009). Jan Brewer had initially opposed his plan in 2010 causing “Captain Kool-Aid,” Kirk Adams, a true believer in … Read more

Federal Judge rules Prop. 123 illegal, again

Our lawless Republican legislature and governor believe that they can do whatever they want, and fabricate any justification for it, because with one party rule and control of the Arizona courts, they can simply get away with it. There is no checks and balances, or any accountability to the citizens of Arizona. “We decide, and … Read more

After Prop. 123, ‘we don’t get fooled again’

You can smell desperation coming from the governor’s office on the ninth floor.

Last year Gov. Ducey’s budget gave teachers a 2 percent raise over five years, or put another way, they would get a four-tenths of a percent raise per year over five years.

The legislature eventually settled on one percent last year — this was actually a one-time bonus — and one percent this year, with no promises for future pay raises.

The peasants should be grateful that we gave them anything.”

But now there is a national teachers revolt that has rocked West Virginia, Oklahoma and Kentucky, and the grassroots educators group #RedForEd in Arizona is threatening a walkout of their own. Arizona teachers demand 20 percent raises, more money for students:

Frustrated and desperate, Arizona educators are demanding 20 percent pay raises to address the state’s teacher crisis and have threatened to take escalated action if state leaders don’t respond with urgency.

Besides the 20 percent teacher raises, educators’ demands are:

  • Restoring state education funding to 2008 levels. Arizona spends $924 less per student in inflation-adjusted dollars today than it did in 2008, according to the Joint Legislative Budget Committee. Restoring education funding to that level would cost the state about $1 billion.
  • Competitive pay for all education support professionals, such as teachers’ aides and paraprofessionals. Dollar figures for this weren’t specified Wednesday.
  • A “permanent” step-and-lane salary structure in which teachers are guaranteed annual raises and steady advancement in wages.
  • No new tax cuts until the state’s per-pupil funding reaches the national average. According to the U.S. Census Bureau’s 2015 figures, the most recent available, Arizona spent $7,489 per pupil compared with the national average of $11,392.

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#DoubleTalkDucey to Arizona Teachers: ‘Drop Dead’

Our GOP-friendly media in Arizona are far too supplicant to our GOP-run state government, and lacking in imaginative headlines.

Back in the day, they might have covered Governor Ducey’s response to the demands of Arizona teachers the way that the New York Daily News covered President Gerald Ford’s response to New York City: ‘Drop Dead.”

Here in Arizona today, this is the best we get. Ducey: ‘No’ to major teacher raises, ‘yes’ to more tax cuts:

Gov. Doug Ducey said Thursday that teachers aren’t going to get the 20 percent pay hike they are demanding — not now and not in the foreseeable future. Drop dead!

And he intends to continue proposing further cuts in state taxes even as teachers say without substantially more money they may have no choice but to strike.

Speaking to reporters a day after a rally brought more than 2,000 teachers and supporters to the Capitol, Ducey said he’s doing the best he can.

His “best” is not nearly good enough. And it’s not in good faith.

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Oklahoma teachers to strike on Monday; Arizona teachers are considering a strike

In February, West Virginia school teachers organized a spontaneous statewide teacher strike to get the state legislature to move on teacher salary increases and to address their medical insurance plan.

Next up appears to be Oklahoma teachers going out on strike. Oklahoma approves teacher pay increase but union says it’s not enough, walkout still on:

Oklahoma legislators approved a measure including a $6,100 pay raise for teachers on Wednesday, but the state teacher’s union says the bill doesn’t go far enough and plans to walk out Monday.

House Bill 1010XX, which was described as “the largest teacher pay raise in the history of the state” passed both the state House and Senate this week. Oklahoma Gov. Mary Fallin said she would sign the bill.

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For weeks, Oklahoma teachers have been considering a walkout over what they say is their breaking point over pay and education funding. The state ranks 49th in the nation in teacher salaries, according to the National Education Association, in a list that includes Washington, D.C. Mississippi and South Dakota rank lower.

Inspired by the West Virginia strike in which teachers demanded and got a pay raise from state leaders earlier this month, similar efforts have taken off in Oklahoma and Arizona.

The Oklahoma Education Association, the state’s largest teachers’ union that represents nearly 40,000 members and school personnel, called the passage of the bill “a truly historic moment,” but one that remains “incomplete” according to its president Alicia Priest.

Teachers and school staff will walk off their jobs on Monday and descend on the state Capitol, she said in video comments posted on Facebook.

“While this is major progress, this investment alone will not undo a decade of neglect,” she said. “Lawmakers have left funding on the table that could be used immediately to help Oklahoma students.”

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