Schools in polygamist community may get state bailout
 
By Paul Davenport
Tucson Citizen
 
PHOENIX - Arizona legislators are moving to provide a $1.3 million bailout to a financially troubled school district serving a remote community long dominated by a polygamist sect.

The House K-12 Education Committee on Wednesday unanimously endorsed the bill after a state-appointed receiver assured members that the Colorado City Unified School District is under new management and that it shouldn't fall under the sect's sway again.

Receiver Peter Davis said the district needs the state loan largely because members of the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints are not paying taxes on property owned by a trust under which church members collectively hold their property.

The state Board of Education appointed Davis in December under a 2005 law enacted because of the district's financial problems. Those problems included teachers going without pay for several months during 2004.

The district's top administrators stepped down as part of a consent agreement and the Mohave County school superintendent has already appointed two non-FLDS members to fill vacancies on the district's five-member board, Davis said.

There have been discussions about expanding the district's boundaries so that the FLDS membership no longer constitutes a majority of the district's voters. The majority also could slip if more church members leave the area because of possible evictions by the fiduciary appointed by a Utah court to oversee the trust, Davis said.

"So they're left with a choice of either staying in their home and paying their property taxes and disobeying their religious leader or leaving for Texas" or elsewhere, Davis said.

The FLDS, which was based in the twin border towns of Hildale, Utah, and Colorado City, Ariz., has now established a compound in Eldorado, Texas, and many members reportedly have moved there. Meanwhile, sect leader Warren Jeffs is a fugitive, sought on Arizona charges of sexual contact with a minor and conspiracy to commit sexual conduct with a minor and on a federal charge of unlawful flight to avoid prosecution.

Davis said the district has instituted cost-cutting measures, plans to sell an airplane and other surplus property and has a new, highly capable business manager.

"We have stopped the wasteful spending," he said. "I'm very optimistic for the future of this district."

Bruce Wisan, the fiduciary appointed to oversee the trust said he's trying to get FLDS members to pay 2005 and 2006 property taxes owed in Arizona's Mohave County and Utah's Washington County but will begin eviction proceedings if the taxes aren't paid.

Surveys are being conducted to divide large parcels into individual lots for tax purposes so appropriate taxes can be assigned, Wisan said from Salt Lake City.

Wisan said he thinks FLDS members ultimately will pay the taxes owed.

However, "nobody knows what they're going to do. Warren has told them to say nothing, do nothing and sign nothing," Wisan said. "That puts me in a little bit of a collision course with them."

The pending Arizona legislation would require the school district to repay the state within five years. The bill next must clear a House Appropriations Committee before reaching the full House.

The FLDS sect broke away from the mainstream Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints over polygamy, which the Mormon Church prohibits.
 
tucsoncitizen.com
Originally published February 15, 2006
 
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