Montini: Exposing the Prop. 123 scam in six words

Proposition 123 is a con game.

Remember the old expression that talks about "robbing Peter to pay Paul?"

Prop. 123 is worse than that, or, in six words:

It’s robbing Peter to pay … Peter.

And in this particular political flimflam “Peter” is our kids. And their kids.

Robbing our kids' piggy bank

Gov. Doug Ducey and the Legislature want to compensate for some of the tax money they’ve withheld from education for years – money they were legally obligated to commit – by taking money from the state land trust.

MONTINI:Teachers tell me why Prop. 123 is bad/good

The land trust is the remaining nine million-plus acres of land that Arizona got at statehood. Income from the sales and leases of that land is meant to help finance things like education -- forever. Proponents of Prop. 123 want to sell off a bunch of extra land over the next 10 years. They say that passing the proposition will bring billions of new dollars into education over those years and not raise taxes.

That's true. All we need to do is rob our children’s piggy bank.

Something we wouldn’t need to do if the Legislature hadn’t broken the law for years.

Voters say 'pay up,' lawmakers ignore them

Back in 2000 Arizona voters passed Proposition 301, which created a sales tax to fund education. The legislature ignored the law, using the money from the tax for other things. Schools took the Legislature to court. The state Supreme Court said the Legislature must pay back the money. The Legislature ignored the ruling, dragging out the court case. Gov. Ducey agrees with them, and now is using Prop. 123 as a way to settle that lawsuit.

It’s a shell game.

They’re playing us for suckers.

Five former state treasurers say so. So do The League of Women Voters, who call what lawmakers have done a “fraud on the people.”

The state has a big surplus of funds. But if lawmakers used that money for education they’d probably be unable to continue giving nice fat tax breaks to their corporate pals.

Or as Shirley Sandelands, the chair of Arizona’s League of Women Voters put it, “They (lawmakers) should consider removing dramatic corporate tax cuts made over the past decade. They should also get serious about doing their job for the people of Arizona rather than large corporate backers to their campaign war chests.”

No guarantee that Prop. 123 will happen

Even if Prop. 123 passes there’s no guarantee it will be implemented. It could be challenged in court.

Former State Treasurer Dean Martin told lawmakers, “You’re trying to settle and inflation lawsuit on education, and you’re going to end up with an inflation lawsuit on the trust fund.”

Still, Prop. 123 is a really tempting deal, isn’t it?

We pinch all that money from the wallets of unsuspecting kids, to whom we can pretend to be gifting it.

We know deep down it’s not the best thing to do. Not the right thing. But the governor and the other people selling the idea make it seem so…easy.

Which is exactly why con games work.

My Turn: Let's debunk those Prop. 123 myths

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