Arizona voters will decide on two propositions on Tuesday, May 17.

• Proposition 123 is the more difficult of the two. While it would seem like a no-brainer to fund our schools, it’s an attempt to bamboozle schools to avoid paying debts the state knowingly owes.
  On the surface, Prop 123 seems like a great deal. But in looking deeper, it is a hornswoggle.

Courts have ruled against the state twice and ordered the state to pay schools — perhaps as much as $1.3 billion — but legislators refuse to give what they owe our kids.

Gov. Doug Ducey and legislators now offer desperately underfunded districts the proposition as a “settlement” and schools are more than eager to buy into it — when you’re starving, any scrap seems like a banquet.

Arizona legislators who have wanted to steal and sell off Arizona’s State Trust Land for years found a wedge issue and are using our children as pawns, dangling education funding in front of voters.

Legislators are holding the money hostage so they can claim to taxpayers they are fiscally wise because they have a budget surplus. But it’s a sham and voters should not reward this lie in the ballot box.

Five former state treasurers oppose it. The current treasurer has circumnavigated the state, revealing to voters how terrible the state’s plan is not just for our kids, but for the land trust from which schools are funded.

If passed, our schools will, unquestionably, face a major education budget crisis in 2026 and this time, the state will not have the financial resources to get out of it.

If Prop 123 passes, the Sedona-Oak Creek School District would get an additional $253,100 next year, or $221 per student. If Prop 123 fails and the courts order the state to make back payments owed, SOCSD’s portion of that settlement would top $1.2 million, or around $1,048 per student.

If Prop 123 passes, SOCSD doesn’t get a dime of back payments.

• The easier one is the second item, Proposition 124. It would permit the state to adjust benefits in the underfunded Public Safety Personnel Retirement System. It would replace the current permanent benefit increase structure with a cost of living adjustment indexed for inflation, capped at 2 percent per year.

Currently, investment returns funding the pension have underperformed and the revenue for payouts comes from an account that doesn’t earn interest and cost of living increases aren’t tied to inflation.

As a state, we promise our first responders — firefighters, paramedics and police officers who enter their professions to help their neighbors — a pension for their years of public service. The least we can do as a state is make sure we pay what we promise.

The proposition would make budget adjustments, saving taxpayers $1.5 billion over the next 30 years. It is supported by the Arizona Fraternal Order of Police, Professional Fire Fighters of Arizona, League of Arizona Cities & Towns and the Arizona Chamber of Commerce & Industry.

Vote no on Prop 123.

Vote yes on Prop 124.