At a luncheon with county supervisors, Arizona Gov. Doug Ducey justified earlier funding sweeps and cost shifts from the state to counties. He also addressed reports that some of his staff received double digit pay increases.
Ducey fired back saying the story, which first appeared in the Arizona Republic, was “misreported.”
"We’ve got nearly half a billion dollars additional available all of it for K-12 education and teacher’s raises," Ducey said. "There has not been an additional dollar spent in the governor’s office since I came into office, OK."
Ducey went on to say that he wants teachers to get a raise.
"We’ve put hundreds of millions of dollars additional into K-12 education," he said.
Earlier this week, teachers gathered outside the state Capitol to demand higher pay raises, saying it’s insulting that public school teachers were awarded only a 1 percent pay increase in this year’s budget.