AZ WEEK: Ducey Defends Budget, Education Spending

Gov. Doug Ducey Friday defended his tight budget and allocations for education, saying the state must "stop spending money we don't have."

In a speech to the Tucson Hispanic Chamber of Commerce and follow-up Arizona Public Media interview, the Republican acknowledged that the state budget will cause pain down the line in other governmental and educational entities.

But he called it a necessary step.

"I know our budget will require other leaders in our local communities, schools and universities to also make their own decisions and in many cases they also may not be popular," Ducey said. "But I fundamentally believe that as leaders, we need to leave this state and this country in a better place for our children than we found it.

"And we can't do that unless we start paying our bills on time and stop spending money we don't have."

Ducey repeated his disputed claim that under the budget he signed, Arizona is spending more on K-12 education than ever, but that simply spending a lot of money on schools doesn't assure success.

"The fact that we are spending more in Arizona K-12 education in real dollars next year, historically, than ever before in the history of our state shows that we're on the right trend," he said. "But I want to make sure that we don't just have the number of dollars as our measure of success. I do think that a growing state and a growing economy should always have additional dollars available."

He cited high spending on schools in several other places, including Newark, N.J., Baltimore and Washington, D.C., and said if dollars were all that mattered, they would be the best in the nation.

" ... Except they are not," Ducey added. "They are among the worst."

Also on the program: - State Sen. David Bradley says years of cuts to social services in the state will take years to reverse and repair.

• Economist George Hammond says the state's economy is improving, albeit slowly.

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