Voter-approved Arizona education tax dead after court ruling

By BOB CHRISTIE
Associated Press

PHOENIX (AP) — A judge has declared that a tax on high-earning Arizona residents to boost education spending can’t be enforced because of a state Supreme Court ruling and has ordered its collection permanently blocked. Friday’s ruling from Maricopa County Superior Court Judge John Hannah was widely expected after the Supreme Court ruled in August that the tax was unconstitutional if it put schools above a legal spending cap. Voters approved the tax in 2020 to increase teacher pay and school spending in a state that has among the lowest educator pay in the nation and overall per-student spending levels. It was expected to add more than $800 million a year for K-12 schools.