If public officials are asking you to fork over a larger slice of your hard-earned dollars, isn’t it fair to ask if they’re spending what you’ve already given them wisely—especially when it turns out they’ve been using at least some of your money to subsidize luxury resort getaways to vacation hotspots?
Public records obtained by the Goldwater Institute reveal that’s exactly what the Tolleson Union High School District in Avondale, Ariz., did: attend what amounted to multi-day vacations at four-star resorts—even as the district now wants voters to agree to tax themselves more to support additional spending.
Tolleson Union is far from the only district trying to pry open voters’ wallets through “budget override” and bond elections—39 such proposals are on the ballot in Maricopa County alone. The additional tax money will ostensibly go toward building or improving school buildings (via bonds or “District Additional Assistance Overrides”) or toward providing additional budget capacity for things like staff salaries and programs.
The problem is that Tolleson Union, which is asking for approval for both a bond authorization and a District Additional Assistance Override, has been spending its existing taxpayer cash in some highly questionable ways.
In both July 2023 and June 2024, for instance, Tolleson Union’s school administrators and school board members treated themselves to multi-day summer “retreats” at four-star resorts in Sedona and Tucson, all on the taxpayers’ dime.
Most school districts do hold retreats—for strategic planning and to discuss important goals that will drive their work for the coming year—but they typically happen at the district office, where the cost is minimal and the public can attend and participate.
In contrast, Tolleson Union’s completely unnecessary trips may, in fact, have broken Arizona’s Open Meeting Law by not even providing the required public access to the meetings. At the two-day June 2024 Retreat held at the Hilton Sedona Resort at Bell Rock, Tolleson Union’s governing board failed to provide an agenda that stated the topics up for discussion. At both the 2023 and 2024 retreats, there was no meaningful way for the public to attend the proceedings, or even to watch a video stream or listen to an audio recording.
What’s more, two of Tolleson’s school board members also served in executive positions with the Arizona School Boards Association and attended countless hours of professional development sessions on how to comply with the Open Meeting Law. Apparently, they were not paying attention.
It’s not just Tolleson Union. Public records obtained by Goldwater revealed last month that the Phoenix Elementary School District Governing Board tried using taxpayer dollars to send school board members to an out-of-state conference for training in leftwing identity politics—only to cancel the trip after this wasteful expenditure came under the Institute’s scrutiny. Also last month, Goldwater uncovered how leaders of the Creighton Elementary School District in Phoenix sent officials to attend a glitzy conference in California wine country focused on implementing the racially discriminatory tenets of “diversity, equity, and inclusion” (DEI) in schools—to the tune of $4,000 per person.
And just days before, the state Auditor General blew the whistle on the Baboquivari School District spending “$342,000 sending staff to a 2-day out-of-State professional development conference,” “exceed[ing] maximum amounts of lodging and meals,” and “wast[ing] district resources” on “unnecessary travel costs.”
Taxpayers deserve to know when their tax money is being wasted—especially when those same taxpayers are being asked to approve even more spending. That’s why Goldwater filed a statement to be included on the Voter Information Ballot Pamphlet that voters will receive before the November election, letting Tolleson Union taxpayers know about this wasteful spending. And it’s why we have also submitted public records requests to find out exactly how much these wasteful trips cost.
Our public officials must always be accountable for how they spend taxpayer dollars. The Goldwater Institute is hard at work making sure that happens.
