Invest in AZ Coalition Submits Petitions for 2022 Referendum

On September 28, Arizona Interfaith Network and the coalition partners with the Invest in AZ Campaign submitted referendum petitions to the Arizona Secretary of State to halt the dangerous tax handouts to Arizona’s wealthiest residents that would impoverish our schools for decades to come. While we await the verification of the signatures, the coalition has halted implementation of the tax cuts until voters can decide their fate on the 2022 ballot.

This success is the culmination of an unprecedented 90-day effort to refer multiple bills to the ballot amidst ongoing pandemic conditions. Valley Interfaith Project, with our statewide network, the Arizona Interfaith Network are founding members of the Invest in Ed coalition of organizations, now known as Invest in Arizona,  that once again mobilized to preserve funding for Arizona public education and so much more. Our volunteer leaders again devoted their time, energy and ingenuity to defend Arizona children and Arizona’s future.

Members of the Invest in Arizona coalition gathered at the Capitol on Tuesday for the delivery of the petitions to the Secretary of State's office.   Rev. Jeff Procter-Murphy, Dayspring UMC, represented AIN at the ceremony.  Here are his remarks:

This feels like déjà vu. Just last year we were here with some 430,000 signatures to put Prop 208 on the ballot because our state legislature refused to adequately fund our schools.  Members of our coalition put Prop 208 on the ballot because our class sizes are too big, because our text books are antiquated, because our buildings are crumbling, our teachers, many of them, are leaving the profession because they can’t afford it, or even leaving our state because we consistently rank 48^thin per pupil funding.  This has got to stop – this utter lack of political will to invest in future generations has got to stop. For too long we have neglected our responsibility to future generations. 

Last November, Arizonans passed Prop 208 to reverse three decades of disinvestment in our schools. It was a historic victory to provide nearly a billion dollars to our schools, to invest in education. Yet our governor and legislature flagrantly disregarded the will of the voters.  They not only passed legislature to dismantle prop 208; they’ve decided to radically restructure our tax code to reward the very wealthy on the backs of everyone else.  They did so on the narrowest of margins, and they thought we wouldn’t notice.  This is an affront to the voters of our state.  It’s an insult to our teachers, and it’s a direct attack on the very people that all of us, people of faith, are instructed to protect:  children, the vulnerable, those who live on the margins and who have suffered the most in this pandemic.

But we see how this rushed tax code will handcuff our state in incoming budget cycles.  And we see how it shortchanges our most vulnerable families for generations to come.  We see how these expanded tax cuts will cripple our state government beyond education.  Health and human services and public safety will also be impacted, affecting everyone. Most of all we see how this blatantly disregards the will of the people. So today we are standing up for those whom our elected officials refuse to defend: the poor, the vulnerable and our children. And we are so grateful for the Arizona citizens who gave up so much of their time these past three months, under the sweltering Arizona sun, pounding the pavement, in order to give our children a better future.

We can choose a different path. We will do it together.

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