Ducey determined to pass university bond plan lawmakers dislike

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From AZ Capitol Times:

Arizona legislators want to give the state’s three public universities more money, but are loathe to cede the power to spend, as would be the case under Gov. Doug Ducey’s bonding plan.

The governor’s budget proposes redirecting tax dollars paid by the universities back to the universities to help fund operations and leverage for roughly $1 billion in bonds. Those dollars could help pay for new research and development facilities and cover the costs of deferred maintenance bills at Arizona State University, Northern Arizona University, and the University of Arizona.

But it’s not the borrowing of hundreds of millions of dollars that has lawmakers up in arms — it’s the mechanism by which Ducey wants to make those dollars consistently available to universities in this year’s budget and for years to come.

Lawmakers are worried about putting the revenue stream on auto-pilot. Put another way, the Legislature would be relinquishing its power of the purse, at least when it comes to tax revenues that would otherwise be available for spending from the General Fund.