/ Modified may 18, 2016 6:09 p.m.

Prop 123 School Funding Vote Too Close to Call; 0.9% Margin

Ballot counting resumes Wednesday, with thousands of votes still to be tallied.

Ballot counting resumed Wednesday across Arizona, with the Proposition 123 school funding plan still too close to call from Tuesday's special election.

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Tens of thousands of votes remained uncounted, including an estimated 10,000 in Pima County, and it was unclear if the tally would be completed Wednesday.

With 931,000 votes counted statewide, yes votes outnumbered no votes 50.48 percent to 49.52 percent, according to the Secretary of State's Office. The vote margin was about 8,800.

"People don’t know what to think and I think it’s going to be really hard to focus throughout the day just not knowing,” said Mary Martinez, a teacher in the Sunnyside Unified School District at Sierra 2-8 School.

Martinez is also president of the district teachers union, which supported the measure.

Results in Pima, Coconino and Yavapai counties weighed against the proposal. In Pima, nearly 12,400 more "no" votes than "yes" voted were counted.

“The Pima County community isn’t buying Prop. 123 as a good solution when they already spoke through Prop. 301 some years ago,” Tucson Unified School District Superintendent H.T. Sanchez said Tuesday night.

He said some voters he talked to feared the Legislature would not uphold the proposition even if it passed. Proposition 301, passed by voters in 2000, requires the state to increase school funding every year to cover inflation. It was ignored by the Republican-controlled Legislature for several years, leading to a lawsuit.

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Tucson area residents were divided in their stances on the issue.

Morgan Abraham, chair of an opposition campaign, said the close race shows voters have doubts.

“I’m proud of the voters for really looking into it, not trusting the special interests and the big money that poured and poured and poured TV ads, radio ads and newspaper ads to pass this thing," Abraham said Tuesday night.

“I’m pleased with the vote,” said Vail School District parent Stacy Winstryg, who supports the measure and is on the steering committee for an education advocacy group. As a group, the Vail Parent Network could not agree to endorse or oppose Proposition 123.

“In the end, we decided, you know, I think people need to decide for themselves," Winstryg said. "This gives people the opportunity to really get informed.”

Gov. Doug Ducey helped broker the deal and has supported the measure.

Passage of the proposition would settle a six-year-old lawsuit by schools and related groups against the state Legislature, which stopped funding inflation increases in 2008, despite the state Constitution requiring those increases. The state Supreme Court found that the Legislature had broken the law.

Sixteen years ago, Arizona voters mandated a sales tax increase to boost education funding and required the state to increase money given to schools per student each year in accordance with inflation rates. The measure was called Proposition 301.

The state did that until 2008, when amid the Great Recession, legislators stopped increasing per pupil funding.

Schools, the Arizona Education Association, the Arizona School Boards Association and the Arizona Association of of School Business Officials joined to sue Arizona’s treasurer in 2010.

Courts ruled in favor of the plaintiffs, but no additional money went to schools. Arizona legislators in fall 2015 approved an agreement settling the lawsuit by resetting the base level funding and providing $625 million of additional funding to schools over 10 years.

Most of the money would come from an increased distribution from the state land trust fund. The trust includes 9.2 million acres of land given to Arizona at its creation to fund education and other agencies. When land is sold or leased, the money is invested and the profits distributed, with schools as the largest beneficiary.

Money now is distributed to schools at a rate of 2.5 percent a year. If voters approve Proposition 123 that payout would rise to 6.9 percent for 10 years.

There are several instances in which the Legislature could halt the new funding. These triggers include if sales tax revenue drops and if the K-12 portion of the state budget rises to 49 percent.

To see who supported and who opposed the measure, read or listen to this story.

Your Vote 2016
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