2020 Education Ballot Measure Proposes ‘Tax Surcharge’ for High-Income Earners

From Arizona Republic, January 14, 2020.  Lily Altavena.

This year’s version of Invest In Ed is similar to what educators proposed two years ago. The measure would increase taxes for single filers earning more than $250,000 or married filers earning more than $500,000. It would raise an estimated $940 million every year for education.

The money would go to the following, according to an Invest in Education press release:

• 50% would go to K-12 public school teacher and classroom support staff salaries.
• 25% would go to schools for student support services staff.
• 10% would go to teacher mentoring and retention programs at the school level to keep teachers from leaving the state.
• 12% would go to career and technical education programs.
• 3% would go 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.

Invest In Ed is not the only education tax measure that could appear on the 2020 ballot. Arizona legislators have introduced proposals to reform an existing education sales tax measure, Proposition 301.