Plan to boost teacher salaries moves on

By Robbie Sherwood
The Arizona Republic
Feb. 8, 2000
Arizona voters may get the chance to raise teacher salaries.
A Senate committee approved a plan Monday that would use one-tenth of the state sales taxes to boost teacher salaries by $5,000 a year.
If approved by the full Senate and the House, the proposal goes on the Nov. 7 ballot.
The higher salaries would cost $200 million a year.
"If we can use sales-tax money to build a stadium, I think we can use sales-tax money to give our teachers a raise," said the bill's sponsor, Sen. Scott Bundgaard, R-Glendale.
The bill is the fourth attempt this session to boost teacher pay. Bundgaard's first try failed, and a bipartisan bill has been gutted. A bill providing a $150-a-year raise that critics call "an insult" lives on.
Democrats on the Senate Finance Committee opposed the latest attempt, saying the Legislature should raise salaries without a public vote.
They also said the plan is doomed because it will instantly earn the wrath of any business that gets a sales-tax break. That's because Bundgaard plans to make up the $200 million cost by ridding the tax code of tax breaks that favor several unspecified "special interest" groups.
Jeremy Christensen, a math teacher at Mesa's Red Mountain High School, doesn't know how much longer he can work for "Peace Corps wages."
"It breaks my heart, but I'm looking at other options," he said. BACK TO TOP