Lawsuit filed against schools tax plan

A group opposing Invest in Education, a ballot measure that would tax the state’s wealthiest residents to raise nearly $1 billion for education, has filed a lawsuit in a bid to knock it off November’s ballot.

The legal challenge claims Invest in Ed did not follow state law in collecting petition signatures and alleges that the measure misleads taxpayers by not stating the full impact of the tax.

Arizonans for Great Schools and a Strong Economy, a committee backed by the Arizona Chamber of Commerce, filed the lawsuit. Jaime Molera, a former state school superintendent also listed as a plaintiff on the lawsuit, is chairing that committee.

“The Initiative was sold to wellmeaning petition signers by way of a thoroughly misleading 100-word summary,” the complaint reads.

Invest In Ed submitted 435,669 signatures to the Arizona Secretary of State’s office in July to qualify for the ballot, nearly double the amount needed.

The battle this lawsuit sets up bears striking similarities to a battle fought in 2018, when the Arizona Supreme Court knocked the Invest in Education Act off the November 2018 ballot for misleading language.

Invest In Ed organizers were expecting another challenge this time.

The education leaders behind Invest In Ed say the measure has been significantly restructured since 2018 and will be able to withstand a legal challenge.

“The Chamber typically represents well-paid CEOs, but that is not a sympathetic audience to voters, so they are grasping towards small business owners which they really don’t speak for,” David Lujan, director of The Arizona Center for Economic Progress, said.

What the suit claims

The measure would create a 3.5% tax surcharge for single individuals earning more than $250,000 or married couples earning more than $500,000.

The current income tax rate in Arizona for someone making $159,001 or more is 4.5%. Arizona’s average income tax rate is one of the lowest in the nation.

The money, according to Invest in Ed, would go to the following:

50% to K-12 public school teacher and classroom support staff salaries.

25% to schools for student support services staff.

10% to teacher mentoring and retention programs at the school level to keep teachers from leaving the state.

12% to career and technical education programs.

3% to the Arizona Teachers Academy, an initiative to stem Arizona’s teacher shortage by waiving college tuition and fees for future teachers who agree to work in Arizona schools.

Molera’s complaint contains a few different arguments.

The complaint states that the measure defines “teacher” too broadly, misrepresenting who would benefit from salary increases, because the measure’s definition of teacher includes “any non administrative school personnel, including certified teachers, who instruct students or support student academic achievement.”

That includes school counselors, special education aides and school nurses.

The lawsuit also claims the initiative broke state law, by basing pay for those collecting signatures on the number of signatures collected. The complaint quotes a circulator as saying: “You’ll get paid per signature. I’m making $120 an hour, but I’m very good at it. You can earn the same if you’re a high performer, but $25 is realistic for beginners.”

Lujan said the firm that helped the measure gather signatures has payroll records that would prove Molera’s claim wrong.

The lawsuit claims the measure’s summary, presented to those who signed petitions to get Invest In Ed on the ballot, was misleading.