AG: Officials OK to ‘educate’ public on pot initiative

Educating or politicking? ... Arizona Attorney General issued a legal opinion last week saying elected officials can use their offices and resources to educate the public about why they think marijuana should not be legalized in 2016.

Brnovich issued the new opinion in response to an inquiry from Yavapai County Attorney and Maricopa County Attorney

Both are vocal critics of legalization and Polk is leading an effort to defeat an initiative led by the Marijuana Policy Project to legalize marijuana for recreational use.

Marijuana supporters were rumored to be planning a complaint against Polk over use of public resources to oppose marijuana.

In his opinion, the “General,” as Brnovich likes to be called, wrote laws ban the use of public funds to influence electoral outcomes. But, he continued, nothing prevents public officials from taking part in campaigns to “educate” the public as long as “they do not unambiguously urge the electorate to cast a vote for or against” the marijuana ballot measure.

Asked if Brnovich, who doesn’t appear to feel strongly either way about legalization of the drug, will work to oppose marijuana legalization, a spokesperson said, “Mark Brnovich was elected by Arizona voters to enforce the law, not make policy.” Polk praised the opinion. But

the Arizona political director of the Marijuana Policy Project, skewered it.

“We believe that they should have bigger things to worry about as county attorneys and that citizens tax dollars shouldn’t be spent advocating against citizens initiatives,” he said.

Fun with math ... Few things are duller than a news release full of numbers and statistics. Maybe that’s why former treasurer and current Gov. rarely issued them. So a tip of the glass to new Treasurer

who had some fun with a release last week announcing the state’s credit rating had improved just a bit.

“Due to the timing of this, it will be hard to tell if Arizonans will be celebrating tonight because of the credit upgrade or Cinco de Mayo,” DeWit stated in the release.

Schooled on money ... Before you get support for mandatory full-day kindergarten, it takes money to support the lawmakers who will support it.

A Friday fundraiser aimed to do that by raking in at least $25,000 to benefit 19 legislators and one county sheriff who back the Additional Classroom Time for Kindergartners measure. The legislation is being pushed by business leaders and was promoted earlier this year by Maricopa County Sheriff

The bill called for making full-day kindergarten mandatory, but didn’t provide money to pay for it. Supporters suggested dollars could come from the yetto-be-settled lawsuit over K-12 funding. The measure was dead from the get-go.

Nonetheless, even if there’s no money for full-day kindergarten, there is money for these “champions” of more classroom time. Each of the event’s co-hosts committed to contribute $1,000, which guarantees the beneficiaries $1,250.

“Let’s move forward and get our kids educated in Arizona,” Board of Regents Chairman The board voted unanimously to reverse a long-standing policy and allow the undocumented students known as “dreamers” to pay instate tuition rates. Compiled by Republic reporters Mary Jo Pitzl, Alia Beard Rau and Yvonne Wingett Sanchez. Get the latest at politics.azcentral.com.