Arizona Supreme Court Removes Tax Initiative From Ballot, a Blow to Teachers

In a major blow to the national protest movement against classroom budget cuts and stagnant teachers’ salaries, the Arizona Supreme Court blocked a ballot initiative Wednesday that would have increased taxes on the wealthy to help raise money for schools.

Teachers, unions and activists have shifted their focus to the ballot box in recent months, after educators in six states walked out of their schools this year. Among their biggest targets was proudly libertarian Arizona, where proponents gathered far more signatures than the number necessary to put the tax initiative, called Invest in Education, on the ballot.

The court said, however, that the wording of the proposition could have confused voters about the extent of the proposed tax increase, in part because of questions about whether taxpayers’ income levels would be adjusted for inflation. The measure would have raised $690 million annually for education.

“This is absolutely stunning, and it denies citizens and teachers what they fought so hard for — the opportunity to fund our students and schools,” Noah Karvelis, a music teacher and one of the leaders of the Arizona walkout, said in an email. “Over 270,000 signatures were just thrown out by the court.”

“This is not the end of our fight, by any means,” he added.

The proposition would have raised income taxes by 3 to 4 percentage points on individuals and households earning more than $250,000. The court’s ruling against it increases the focus on the November elections in the state.

David Garcia, a Democrat and an education professor, is running to unseat Gov. Doug Ducey, a Republican who has fought to protect his bona fides as a tax cutter even as he signed legislation in May to raise teacher pay, ending the walkout. A separate ballot question this fall will determine the fate of the state’s voucher program, which uses tax dollars to help families pay private-school tuition.

In response to the court’s ruling on the income tax measure, Garcia said on Twitter: “The stakes for the race for governor in Arizona just changed utterly and irrevocably. We must elect pro-public education candidates up and down the ballot.”

J.P. Twist, Ducey’s campaign manager, said in a statement that “for Gov. Ducey, his commitment to education funding will continue, after having already made historic investments totaling $2.7 billion,” but that “the case is closed on this measure.”

The Arizona Chamber of Commerce brought the legal challenge against the ballot initiative. Garrick Taylor, a spokesman for the group, said raising income taxes would hurt the state’s small-business owners and job creators. He argued that the Legislature had already provided new money for education in the bill that ended the walkout.

Still, Taylor did not dispute that the state was still spending less each year on its schools, adjusted for inflation, than it did a decade ago. “We’ve never claimed that we have checked the box on education,” he said. “We argued that the petition was fatally flawed. But that doesn’t mean that we’ve somehow closed up shop on the need to put forward strong education and economic policy.”

Proponents of the tax initiative said it would have secured the funds necessary to raise teacher salaries 20 percent by 2020 — a promise the governor has made — and would have provided more money for school support staff raises, full-day kindergarten and other needs.

They saw the ruling as the product of a conservative court. Two years ago, Ducey signed legislation — also supported by the Chamber of Commerce — allowing him to name two additional justices to the state Supreme Court, which previously had five members.

The vote count for the ruling on Wednesday was not immediately available.

David Lujan, treasurer of the Invest in Education Committee and a former Democratic state legislator, said the ruling “takes away the voice of the people.” He added, “If people weren’t engaged before, they will be now. I think people are angry and they are tired of the status quo.”

The news from other states has been more encouraging for the teacher movement, which spread from state to state like wildfire after West Virginia educators mounted a daring statewide walkout in February.

In Oklahoma this week, Republican primary voters ousted a spate of state legislators who were less than fully supportive of the teachers who walked out in April. The teachers eventually won a raise paid for through higher taxes on oil and gas production, motor fuels, online sales and tobacco.

In June, the Oklahoma Supreme Court ruled against an effort, driven by the energy industry, to place a referendum on the ballot to invalidate those tax increases.

In Kentucky, another state where teachers walked out, the Republican speaker of the House was defeated in a May primary by Travis Brenda, a math teacher who bucked party orthodoxy by saying he opposed tax cuts for corporations and the rich.

As educators head back to school, there are signs that the militancy of the teacher movement is spreading from red states to more traditional union strongholds on the coasts. Teachers’ unions in both Los Angeles and Seattle are considering mounting strikes if those districts do not make concessions on salaries and benefits. In Washington state, more than a half-dozen districts failed to open schools on time this week because teachers were on strike.

Teachers in liberal coastal cities generally earn more than their counterparts in the conservative walkout states, but they argue that housing shortages and the high cost of living where they work still make it difficult for them to get by.