The Arizona Legislature is facing legal challenges to budget legislation passed in September to help cover the state’s revenue shortfall, at $1.6 billion after cuts made in the November special session.

The Arizona Education Association and the League of Arizona Cities and Towns are both suing the Legislature over measures they say violate a provision of the Arizona Constitution that bars appropriations bills from covering any area of policy other than state funding and revenue.

Changes affecting teachers in the AEA include adjustments in the law that prohibit school districts from using seniority as a criterion for determining what teachers get laid off during reductions and remove barriers keeping districts from reducing teacher salaries.

AEA spokesman John Hartsell said the legislation stepped outside the bounds of the special session, which was called to deal exclusively with this year’s budget, because teachers’ contracts keep the changes from being implemented until next year. The provisions, he said, would not directly address the shortfall this year, which was the purpose of the special session.

“Those policy changes will not have any bearing or impact on this year’s budget,” Hartsell said. “And that’s what this special session was called for.”

Ken Strobeck, executive director of the League of Arizona Cities and Towns, said the league takes issue with new policies tightening restrictions on development impact fees and benefits given to illegal immigrants.

Development impact fees are charged by cities to developers for the cost of building additional roads, emergency services and expanding infrastructure.

Legislation passed in September puts restrictions in the fees; a policy Strobeck said does not belong in budget bills.

“Those fees have no impact whatsoever on the state’s general fund,” he said.

Members of the league are also upset with provisions that could make cities liable for distributing benefits to illegal immigrants. Strobeck said the law is too open-ended and puts cities in legal peril.

“You don’t have to prove that there’s been a violation in order to have a lawsuit filed,” he said. “Any person that thinks, ‘I don’t think they’re enforcing immigration [adequately]’ can file a lawsuit.”

Rep. John Kavanagh, R-Fountain Hills, said each of the policy changes affects the state’s spending and revenue. For example, the development fee limits, he said, are meant to provide relief to construction companies that employ Arizona residents.

“These are budgetary issues,” Kavanagh said. “And they always have been. We’ve always had the latitude to go beyond our own appropriations.”

Rep. Kyrsten Sinema, D-Phoenix, said the Legislature overstepped its bounds with the bills, and the AEA and the league are likely to win the lawsuits.

Sinema, a practicing attorney when the Legislature is not in session, pointed to the provisions affecting teachers in the AEA as examples of measures that do not save the state money.

“Those provisions make changes to Arizona law and do not have any fiscal impact,” she said. “You could take out all of the things the AEA and the league are suing about and the budget wouldn’t change a penny.”

Reach the reporter at derek.quizon@asu.edu