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Arizona Supreme Court Removes Invest In Education Measure From November Ballot

A proposal that planned to tax the wealthy to fund schools will not appear on the upcoming November ballot. The Arizona Supreme Court barred the ballot proposal that was seeking to raise income taxes on the wealthy to fund schools. 

Voters will not be given the chance to vote to tax “high income earners”, in order to help fund Arizona schools. Supporters worked to raise the necessary 270,00 signatures to get the proposal on the ballot, but it was taken off on a “technicality”, Representative Isela Blanc says.

The proposal, titled the Invest in Education Act, sought to manipulate the state income tax brackets to increase them from five to seven, effectively increasing the tax rate to 8 percent for anyone earning between $250,001 and $500,000 dollars a year. Anyone making more than $500,000 would see rates raised to 9 percent.


The Secretary of State’s Office certified the proposal to be on the ballet, but Chief Justice Scott Bales ruled that the disruption to the current tax rate system would only cause confusion and unfairness. The order effectively reverses a ruling by the lower-courts earlier this month, which rejected a challenge to the proposal.

Opponents to this proposal say that the tax hike would have hurt the state’s economy, and affected small business. Supporters, however, say that it would have raised $690 million for Arizona schools. This tax proposal came after a strike of teachers that lasted six days, and saw thousands of teachers walking out of schools due to requests for funding and adequate ways to fund teachers being constantly denied.

Teachers feel like what is currently being done in the Arizona schools is not enough to secure what they need as educators, and they are disappointed to see the proposal taken off the ballot.