DeWit: Arizona “Run Like A Mini Dougtatorship”

On Monday, Arizona Treasurer Jeff DeWit visited Tucson to discuss his opposition to Proposition 123. DeWit has been very vocal in his opposition to the education funding scheme pushed by Governor Doug Ducey.

DeWit has earned the scorn of Ducey due to his position that the State currently has adequate money to fully fund education without raiding the State Land Trust Fund, which would be the effect should Proposition 123 pass in a Special Election this May. “The economy in Arizona has grown over the past three years,” stated DeWit during his appearance on the James T. Harris radio show on Monday. “We have $600 million – literally right now – sitting in the State’s account. Projections show that it will grow to $1.6 billion next year. Now if we only have to give the schools $200 million, we can do that and still lower taxes. That is the smart way to do this; just use the money that has come in. Don’t pay any more lawyers, and save the trust fund.”

Listen to the interview here

DeWit said that he believed there were two reasons why the Governor decide to reject the simple solution. “He announced the plan back in June, before we knew about the extra money coming in – we were still working off the previous year’s budget. And there was going to be a report in USAToday reporting that we were fiftieth in the country for school funding,” said DeWit. “I don’t think anyone could argue that our teachers are underpaid because we have some horror stories about teacher pay.”

DeWit said since that time, it came out that “we have all this money and I just think they don’t want to change course.”

“I have spoken with every Republican group in the state. The grassroots conservatives and the rank and file Republicans they are opposed to this,” stated DeWit. “They are adamantly opposed to this. They know this is not a conservative thing to do and they are mad with their own members who voted on this. So they know it is a bad gig. But at the Capitol there is favor factory mentality down there. You scratch my back I’ll scratch yours. It is honestly run like a mini Dougtatorship.”

“The two talking points is that it is more money for teachers and it won’t raise taxes,” DeWit said of the Prop 123 campaign. “Both of those things are lies. The more money for teachers was fact checked in the Arizona Republic about a month ago and it got zero stars. It is false. There is no requirement that a penny has to go to teachers. They are giving it to superintendents and the school boards to do with whatever they want with it. The ASBA (Arizona School Board Association), in a video on their website to promote this to their own members, says the great thing about the prop is how there is no accountability on how we spend this money. And the other thing is that it raises property taxes. Scottsdale Unified is going to get zero dollars out of the trust and the entire amount of money is coming out of the property tax increase because they are at the Qualifying Tax Rate so all of it comes from property tax increase. So, many communities around the state are going to see increases including here at Catalina Foothills. There are a bunch in Tucson. I don’t know how they can keep saying that there will be no increase in taxes when property taxes are going to go up with Prop 123 passing.”

When asked about the large donations to the pro-Prop 123 campaign, DeWit said that the money was provided by “the richest people in the state. From what I understand – what they say down there,” referring to the Capitol, “there is talk that they have been promised future tax cuts. There are cuts that are targeted to that, and that’s why they are giving the money. There is a reward kind of return. I have been told that there was a fundraiser at the Governor’s house where they wrote these checks. He invited them over, and there were some closed room talks and they wrote big checks. And that’s it.”