$100,000 salary for Arizona scholarship program advocate

• Sen. Steve Yarbrough was the third-highest-paid school tuition organization head in the state, earning $113,000, according to data from fiscal year 2014
• Yarbrough also has introduced a number of bills over the years to expand the STO program, which potentially boosted his salary
• According to state law, legislators do not have to declare a conflict of interest unless their vote benefits fewer than 10 people

State Sen. Steve Yarbrough is the face of the state’s school tuition organization program. Over the past decade, he’s repeatedly introduced bills to expand the program, voted for that legislation and then benefited financially as executive director of one of the state’s largest non-profit school tuition organizations.

And it’s all legal.

According to state law, legislators do not have to declare a conflict of interest unless their vote benefits fewer than 10 people. There are more than 60 school tuition organization directors, and thus no conflict of interest for Yarbrough.

State law allows organizations to spend up to 10 percent of tax credit donations on overhead, including salaries. As the program has expanded, salaries have grown.

Yarbrough, according to fiscal 2014 data acquired by The Arizona Republic, is the third-highest-paid tuition organization head in the state. That year he earned $113,000. Tax forms show he earned about $40,000 in “other compensation.”

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The lawmaker, who represents Chandler, said he’s never hidden his connection to the tax credit program, or his salary.

“Every election, whoever my opponent is acts like this is a new discovery and I get pummeled,” Yarbrough said. “But I had this job for five years before I became a legislator and was always more than up-front.”

Yarbrough, an attorney, started overseeing the tuition organization in 1998, the year the program started. He has been a state lawmaker since 2003.

Arizona’s conflict-of-interest regulations are looser than those in many states, national ethics experts say. And Arizona is among only nine states without an independent organization to investigate ethics complaints. As potential conflicts arise, lawmakers can seek the advice of legislative attorneys, but the advice is not subject to public scrutiny.

Lawmakers also can file a document notifying legislative leadership of a possible conflict of interest, declaring they have sought legal advice or stating that they will not vote on an issue and why. Those documents are public, but no official entity ensures all possible conflicts are documented.

Yarbrough in 2010, as a state representative, reported to the House clerk that he was executive director of Arizona Christian School Tuition Organization. He wrote that he consulted with House attorneys who said his employment would not conflict with voting on bills affecting such organizations.

Following the Fiesta Bowl ticket scandal, in which the bowl paid for 31 elected officials to take trips to football games across the country, there was talk of forming an independent ethics commission. But Republican leadership has refused to advance multiple Democratic proposals to create a governor-appointed commission as well as bills proposing to expand what constitutes a conflict of interest.

Democrats have been particularly critical of Yarbrough.

“Ten percent of the money you give goes to some middle man, some of whom are legislators,” House Minority Leader Eric Meyer, D-Paradise Valley, said of the donations. “They introduce bills that directly impact their income. And then there is no accountability on performance or how the money is spent.”

About half of the state’s tuition scholarship organizations are run by volunteers. The Arizona Lutheran Scholarship Organization, for example, states on its website that “everyone connected with ALSO volunteers their time — from the board of directors to our annual planning committee to the people who process donations. We have no payroll overhead expenses. That means that more of your donation goes directly to student scholarship.”

Only 10 tuition scholarship organizations in Arizona have salaries higher than $50,000.

Situations such as Yarbrough’s are not uncommon in a part-time citizen Legislature where many members supplement their $24,000-a-year salary with outside work. The benefit, lawmakers have said, is that officials bring an outside expertise and an everyday perspective to their work.

Yarbrough is passionate about school choice, and has spearheaded numerous expansions to the tax credit program.

“It’s one of the few things I would say I know something about, and there’s been some benefit to that,” he said. “My approach has been to be thoughtful and cautious as to our expansion efforts so as not to get in a position where our critics have a valid complaint.”

In addition to supporting legislation to expand the program, Yarbrough also worked on laws requiring additional oversight, including requiring the tuition organizations to receive audits and report more details about who was receiving scholarships.

“I hated to see added regulation come, but five years later, looking back, I think I would have to concede it was beneficial for the overall program,” he said.