Arizona Voters OK School Bonds, Cubs Stadium

DALLAS — Voters in Arizona approved seven out of eight school bond proposals worth a combined $447 million as Mesa approved $84 million for a new Chicago Cubs training facility, along with $202 million for capital needs.

Despite an anti-government mood, the Mesa bonds won easy passage. The capital improvement bonds will finance replacement of water and sewer pipes, and an update of the city's electrical system.

The Cubs proposal, designed to keep the Major League Baseball team in its longtime spring training city, won more than 63% approval. The lavish new stadium and related development is expected to open in 2013.

"The Cubs have been in Mesa for close to 50 years," Cubs chairman Tom Ricketts said. "We'd like to stay in Mesa for another 50 years, and we look forward to taking what is truly a great Spring Training experience and turning it into the most remarkable Spring Training experience ever."

Voters were less generous with schools, rejecting eight out of 17 proposed budget overrides. Overrides are requests to district taxpayers for money to exceed the base level of funding provided by the state.

The rejection of a $16.5 million override in the Deer Valley Unified School District is going to cause real pain, according to board member Christy Agosta.

In Lake Havasu Unified School District, the second failure of an override in two years will force cuts of $1.2 million, according to board members.

Now, school districts are wondering how deeply they may have to cut when the Arizona Legislature again is forced to trim spending. With the defeat of a statewide ballot initiative to redirect $500 million from voter-approved programs into the general fund, lawmakers must now make up the difference in order to reduce a budget deficit of $1.3 billion.

Two state legislators from Lake Havasu City said they didn't know whether K-12 school funding would be protected in the next round of budget cuts. Arizona Gov. Jan Brewer tried to spare education from drastic cuts in previous budget-balancing sessions.

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