PHOENIX — House Speaker Jim Weiers can't legally use leftover cash in his chamber's bank account to fund a voucher program for some special needs students specifically excluded from the new state budget, Attorney General Terry Goddard said Wednesday.
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That isn't likely to happen: Napolitano said Wednesday there were good reasons to cut the $5 million that had been set aside last budget year for the two programs to pay the costs of some students to attend private and parochial schools, including trying to make up a $2 billion deficit.
Even if Weiers could get funding restored, the help for affected parents and students might be only temporary: The state Court of Appeals has ruled it is unconstitutional to use any public funds to pay for tuition to those private schools. But the Supreme Court has said the state can continue funding while it considers the legality of the program — assuming the funds become available.
Weiers said he was disappointed, and not for himself.
"You've left hundreds of children out there in a point of desperation and hundreds of families that are looking at 'What can we do?,' '' he said. Weiers said the students being helped either were former foster children "who have been bounced from place to place'' or students with developmental disabilities which is "not their fault either.''
"So they're being punished again,'' he said.
Goddard said his opinion is not personal.
"I feel terrible on the result we had to reach,'' he said.
"But I don't see any legal way that we could have allowed the speaker to circumvent the constitutional appropriation process,'' Goddard continued. "He doesn't have that authority.
First approved in 2006, one program provided $2.5 in state tax vouchers to the parents of former foster children who have been adopted, vouchers which can be used to pay tuition and fees at private or parochial schools. It also set aside an identical amount is for a similar programs for disabled youngsters.
No funds were included in the budget for the new year that began July 1, a budget negotiated between Gov. Janet Napolitano and Senate President Tim Bee.
Napolitano, who had agreed to the two programs in 2006, said cutting them now was justified.
"We were making lots of cuts in the budget,'' she said. The governor also said the new programs were "under-subscribed,'' with fewer students qualifying for the vouchers than expected.
Weiers then sought to use the more than $9 million he had in accumulated surpluses from money appropriated to the House for its operations during the last eight years. In an effort to make it legal, he crafted it as an "interagency services agreement,'' with the House contracting with the state Department of Education to provide the vouchers.
But Goddard said the money Weiers was attempting to use was provided to run the House. And since the House has no authority to run a voucher program itself, Goddard said Weiers had no authority to contract with — and pay for — someone else to do it.
Goddard's pointed out that his office has been defending the legality of the two programs in court. His attorneys have argued that the vouchers do not violate the constitutional ban on aid to private and parochial schools because the funds benefit the students receiving the services.
But Goddard said his informal legal opinion Wednesday had nothing to do with the legality of vouchers — and everything to do with constitutional limits on what Weiers can do with money given to the House solely for House functions.
Weiers said he is trying to see if there is some other source of funds that could be used to help the affected students.
He pointed out that lawmakers did not repeal the voucher programs but simply did not fund them. Weiers said if he can't use House funds, there may be some unallocated cash available in the budget of state School Superintendent Tom Horne, who had joined with Weiers in seeking Goddard's opinion, that might be diverted to continue the two programs.
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