PHOENIX — A proposed bill in the legislature could make it harder for Arizona school districts to fund new projects.
House Bill 2088, proposed by Republicans, Rep. Laurin Hendrix and Rep. Barbara Parker, said it would prohibit any businesses that give money for school bonds and override campaigns – that pass – from being able to bid on the projects that may happen.
For example, if a school district passes a bond measure to build a new school, the construction companies that donated money to the campaign would not be able to do the construction.
“When schools go out to get funding for a bond or override election, they do go to the contractors that are going to be working for the schools and they go to prominent community members and anywhere that they can get funding,” said Tyler Montague, the president of a public affairs organization. Montague also donated money to the Mesa Public Schools’ bond campaign.
When school districts look for a company to help build a school or for renovations, they put out requests for proposals, looking at a range of companies to see which one would work best for them and their project.
Companies in the construction industry do contribute significant amounts of money for school bond elections.
For the Political Action Committee supporting Mesa Public Schools, the Mesa Alliance for Educational Excellence’s third quarter report of the November 2023 election cycle showed that corporations and LLCs gave more than $150,000.
Concord General Contracting was one company that gave thousands of dollars. CEO Grenee Martacho provided the following statement to ABC15 in response to HB 2088:
We don’t have the ability to change the educational funding from a state level, however if we can help our educational institutions pass bonds and overrides this is the way we can make a difference. Many of our employees have children and grandchildren in our public school system and we have a vested interest in ensuring they get access to the best education the state can offer. Concord supports schools and nonprofit organizations as it is our way to give back to the communities where we live and work. We build for the community, which includes schools, House Bill 2088 is just another roadblock our educational system faces in getting the proper funding and facilities we need to educate our students.
Montague said this bill is another effort to harm public schools.
“It would be much harder,” Montague said of finding other campaign funding options for political action committees supporting schools. “Which is why they've proposed it.”
ABC15 reached out to both Rep. Hendrix and Rep. Parker but did not hear back.
