Senate Approves Aggregate Expenditure Limit Resolution
The Arizona Senate approved the House’s HCR2001 moments ago, meaning that school districts statewide are now free to expend their entire budgets for FY2023.
Arizona law requires that in years where the total appropriations for school districts exceed the Constitutional Aggregate Expenditure Limit, the Legislature must aprove those expenditures by a 2/3 vote by March 1. The House of Representatives passed their resolution yesterday afternoon. With Senate approval, the override process for FY2023 is complete.
Education Doomsday has been averted for this year, with 21 days to spare!
Thank you to all board members, educators, staff, and advocates who took the time to educate Legislators and the community about what the AEL means to school districts.
Click here to thank those who voted for the AEL
(If your Legislators didn’t vote for the AEL resolution, you will only see an message for Gov. Hobbs)
Next: Permanent Fix for FY2024 and Beyond
ASBA’s next priority with regard to the AEL is working on packaging together an override for FY2024 and a potential referral to the voters in November of 2024 to make permanent changes to the calculation of the limit in 2025 and beyond. We are now in a situation where simply funding the formula combined with education sales tax will place us over the limit every year for the forseeable future. Annual overrides are an untenable situation for school districts and the Legislature alike. It presents a political problem for them and an operational problem for us. It is time to resolve it once and for all.