For the past year, officials with the Tucson Unified School District have been dealing with budget problems. An attempt to close four schools to save money failed, so now the district is putting it’s hopes on voters approving a budget override.

It will be called Proposition 403 on the November ballot, and will allow TUSD to provide employee incentives for hard-to-fill positions. One program that will benefit if the proposal passes is Opening Minds Through the Arts, or OMA.

“We find that if children are learning through music, then they retain it, they understand it, they take it in in a different way, and they learn much faster,” says OMA Integration Specialist Jacqueline Brand. Currently the program exists in just 44 of the district’s elementary schools.

A group of parents and political leaders hope to expand the program to all schools in the form of a budget override on the November ballot. It would pump an extra $28 million per year into TUSD’s budget to fund OMA and other educational projects. The total cost to taxpayers would be $127 more per year.

“We in Pima County and the Tucson area cannot wait for the Legislature to solve our financial problems,” said Proposition 403 supporter Peter Likins. “It ain’t gonna happen.”

But some say now is not the time to give TUSD more of the taxpayers’ money, with new members of the Administration. “They don’t really have a track record, and I can’t see at this point giving them $28 million a year,” says concerned taxpayer David Fossdal.

Voters will decide in November.