THE
COMMENT: "As Senate President, Ken put more new money ($640 million)
into K-12 education than ever before in state history."
WHAT
WE'RE LOOKING AT: Republican gubernatorial candidate Ken Bennett said
that while serving as Senate president, he put more new money into K-12
education than had ever been previously allocated. Specifically, he said he put
$640 million in new money into K-12 education.
To evaluate
Bennett's claim, AZ Fact Check looked back at state budgets during the time he
led the Senate.
As Senate
president, Bennett played a key role in the 2004 through 2007 fiscal-year
budgets. In fact, an Arizona Republic story about the fiscal 2007 budget debate
notes that Bennett worked "hard to make the best deal possible and, in the end,
was even lobbying reluctant House members to get on board" with the state
budget.
An independent
analysis by the Joint Legislative Budget Committee shows gains of about $500
million in fiscal 2006 and $469 million in funding boosts in fiscal
2007.
BOTTOM
LINE: The Bennett campaign mailer is accurate. During the time he was
Senate president, he played a key role in helping to approve the largest
increases in K-12 education funding in Arizona
Maricopa County Republicans Has NOT received any monies to post this information,it is a courtesy post.
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