How to fund PEEPs?
Take from the libraries? … Meet your next city council member … And at least it's in Arizona.
The Pima County Board of Supervisors on Tuesday is expected to renew 14 separate agreements to keep a $10 million early childhood education scholarship program going — even though the federal money that used to pay for it is basically drying up.
Instead, Pima County will use millions in the library’s special revenue fund balance to pay for PEEPs.
But library boosters worry that relying on library funds to pay for early childhood education could bleed libraries dry, eventually making both unsustainable.
Budget documents for the county set spending for the FY25/26 budget for the library district at $82.7 million, even though the county is forecasting the library district tax will bring in just $68.4 million.1
The $14.4 million gap will be primarily covered by dipping into what the many average people would consider to be a rainy day fund - the unrestricted fund balance.
This ensures the continuity of services it currently offers — including the Pima Early Education Program Scholarships (PEEPs) program. The projected end of next year fund balance is $35.45 million, according to county officials.
Nicole Fyffe, a senior advisor in the Pima County Administrator’s Office, told the Tucson Agenda that there is sufficient funding to fund operations, capital and PEEPs.
A few years ago, the Pima County Board of Supervisors increased the library district tax rate in part to increase money available for PEEPs as it anticipated the federal funds would eventually run out.
“There was a change in Library District statutes which enabled the Library to fund early education and literacy programs like PEEPs. As a result, the Board made the decision to transition the PEEPs to the Library District once the ARPA funds were expended. In preparation for the transition, the Library District tax was increased. The Library has been carrying a fund balance from year to year, which includes revenues accruing from this tax increase,” Fyffe explained.
Last September, County Administrator Jan Lesher wrote a memo concerned about funding source for PEEPS - outlining short-term fixes.
“The Library District does not have sufficient revenue streams to sustain a $10 million PEEPs program on an annual basis without significant restructuring. The options listed above provide ways to sustain the PEEPS program for a limited period, neither offers a permanent solution to ensure long term funding,” Lesher wrote.
Fyffe said subsequent research has identified long-term funding for PEEPs.
“(The memo) is outdated and was based on an analysis by the finance department without input from the library. Since then we’ve done numerous reviews and are confident PEEPSs can be layered in without impacting operations and the capital program,” she said.
PEEPs provides scholarships to quality preschools for young children between the ages of 3 to 5. Those scholarships are not only an investment in the children — they allow parents to keep their jobs, rather than having to stay home because childcare is so expensive that it doesn’t make sense for them to work.
Source: City of Tucson
Those making under $30,000 are covered by Project Head Start, a federal program aimed at helping low-income families. Those making over $30,000 are not eligible for the extended day head start component of PEEPs since Head Start is limited to those with incomes at the poverty level (which for fam of 4 is $30k).
The Trump administration is considering eliminating Project Head Start altogether. It’s unclear how the county might adjust the scholarship program if those federal funds are cuts.
PEEPs, which Pima County started in 2021, currently serves roughly 1,400 students. Last year, the figure was about 1,900 kids, but cuts in other funding that are used in conjunction with PEEPs forced the county to increase the size of the scholarships, said Nicole Fyffe.
In a year where the both the City of Tucson and Pima County budgets are being strained by declining state-shared revenue and cuts to federal programs that trickle down into local coffers, Tucson City Manager Tim Thomure has recommended eliminating funding for PEEPs entirely.
If his budget is adopted, it would cut scholarships for about 90 families who are using the program in five classrooms in the Amphitheater and Sunnyside school districts.
County officials note that roughly 60% of the children enrolled in the PEEPs program live within Tucson city limits.
Councilman Kevin Dahl has vowed to restore the city’s $750,000 annual contribution, telling the Tucson Agenda he is optimistic that he can find savings in other parts of the city’s estimated $2.4 billion annual budget.
Both Marana and Oro Valley also give money to PEEPs, but significantly less than Tucson has historically provided.
The county is shifting to paying for the program out of the library district because the $30.2 million the county set aside for the program from the federal recovery act has been exhausted over the last four years.
Last August, the County floated the idea of closing three libraries (Frank De La Cruz-El Pueblo, Dewhirst-Catalina, and Santa Rosa) as well as shutting down the Joel Valdez library in downtown Tucson for maintenance for an extended period of time, citing chronic staffing issues and wanting to re-allocate experienced librarians from smaller libraries to larger, busier libraries.
After a massive public outcry, those plans were shelved indefinitely, and the county’s citizen-run library advisory board is taking a fresh look at how to best manage the 27 libraries the county operates.
While some believe the $10 million annual funding for PEEPS using the the library district’s fund balance is not sustainable, County officials are adamant the PEEPs program has sufficient funding to fund operations indefinitely.
Quietly, some librarians are concerned that the continued funding of the PEEPs program — which is roughly one-eighth of the library’s total budget next year — will eventually compete with neighborhood libraries for funding in the future, once the reserve funding is exhausted.
County Library Director Amber Mathewson is not concerned and has been very supportive of the transition to library funding, officials told the Tucson Agenda.
Fyffe said the County is continuing to discuss how to expand the program, noting it is having discussions with the business community about contributing to PEEPs as well as considering asking those earning between $64,300 and $96,450 a year to make some kind of co-pay.
Editor’s note: The story has been updated from its original version following a request from the County to clarify some details.
Five candidates want to fill the vacancy on the Tucson City Council left by Councilman Richard Fimbres, who officially retired this week to focus on his health.
The candidates for the vacant Ward 5 seat are:
John Alan Adkisson, a retiree who most recently worked for AVI-SPL as a project manager
David Garcia, the owner of Barrio Restoration
Gabriel Holguin, who worked as a council aide for Fimbres in Ward 5 for several years
Robert Jaramillio, a Sunnyside Unified School District board member
Rocque Perez II, the Executive Director of the Metro Education Commission who serves on the city’s LGBTQ+ Commission
City officials have already verified that all five candidates meet the minimum requirements to be appointed for the remainder of Fimbres’ term, which is about eight months.
Those requirements include being a registered Democrat who has lived in the southside ward for at least one year.
The Council is expected to make the appointment on May 6.
We’ll be covering the Democratic primary this summer to see who will take the Ward 5 seat next year. Don’t miss any updates in our “Council Watch” series by becoming a paid subscriber today.
Politicians are a fickle bunch, aren’t they? Four months into the legislative session, GOP lawmakers are about to make a major push to finally extend Prop 123 — and pack protections for school vouchers into the Arizona Constitution.
The Education Agenda wrote about a sneak attack that GOP lawmakers are planning.
“Republican lawmakers want to permanently cement school vouchers in the state Constitution by tying them to the renewal of Prop 123 — betting that voters won't turn down the cash, no matter what strings they attach.
The long dormant battle over whether to renew and extend Prop 123 — the $300 million per year school funding stream that's about to run dry — got a new life and a twist this week when Republican lawmakers started shopping their plan to add protections for Empowerment Scholarship Accounts into the text of their Prop 123 renewal plan.”
Tribes have the oldest water rights in Arizona, but they often get lost in the big conversations.
Today’s report from the Water Agenda is about how Arizona’s Tribal nations figure into the high-stakes negotiations over Colorado River water.
“The year 2026 looms large on Arizona’s horizon as the expiration date for current Colorado River operating guidelines. Negotiations are underway to rewrite the “law of the river” and Arizona could lose up to 100% of its share of CAP canal water from the River — including 40% of Phoenix’s water supply.”
There’s never a dull moment in the ever-changing world of artificial intelligence. This week, the A.I. Agenda wrote about the battle over microchips that’s pitting two global powers against each other.
Here’s how this week’s edition kicked off:
“The U.S. and China are locked in a bit of a war right now.
No, it’s not about tariffs.
It’s a tug-of-war over the tiny computer chips that power the artificial intelligence industry.
And Arizona is right at the center of it all.
For as long as AI has been around, the U.S. has been the global leader in manufacturing the specialized machines that make those chips. But last week, a Chinese company called SMIC announced it could make advanced chips for AI and servers, without relying on the machines controlled by the U.S.
Right now, “uh oh” is probably echoing around the boardrooms of U.S. tech giants.”
We love the beautiful red rocks of Sedona.
And apparently, so does Adelita Grijalva’s campaign.
An eagle-eyed subscriber noted that the campaign is using a stock image of the Sedona Red Rocks as they highlight her endorsement from Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders.
It’s a small quibble and we know members of Congress often weigh in on statewide issues outside of their district — we remember Raúl Grijalva fighting against uranium mining at the Grand Canyon for years.
But wouldn’t it be better to highlight southern Arizona’s landscape, like the Baboquivari Peak Wilderness, in future spots?
For the record, we looked at a lot of campaign material from the five Democrats running for the nomination in CD7. This was the only example that stood out.
Feel free to send your observations about campaign material to Joe@TucsonAgenda.com.
This figure includes a slight increase in the library district tax rate, which will need to be approved by the Pima County Board of Supervisors in the coming weeks.
Thank you for acknowledging the significant benefits of publicly funded early childhood education. My youngest child attended the Flowing Wells preschool where many students receive PEEPs scholarships. These necessary scholarships provide a financial leg for public school district preschools to stand on in the midst of education cuts.
The article mentions that the use of library reserve funds was a short-term solution for the County to bridge the gap from the exhausted federal funds. What does the County administration say was the plan to fund PEEPs beyond this short-term solution? I cannot imagine that funding for libraries and early childhood education was ever meant to be put in competition with one another for any length of time.
PEEPS funding does not threaten the libraries.
The Library has been completely supportive of PEEPS from the beginning, as a literate community is their mission. It does both the library and PEEPS a disservice to present them as if they are alternatives or even in opposition. To the contrary, they are complementary aspects of a thriving future for families.