Speaker: Tax increase not needed
The state should be able to adequately fund education without cutting services or raising taxes, a speaker told a group of local residents and education officials Tuesday.
Dave Trabert, with the Kansas Policy Institute, said a portion of the budget crisis could be solved with the unencumbered cash balances school districts are carrying this year.
The presentation was hosted by Iolan Virginia Crossland-Macha, who also has organized recent tea party events to promote less government spending.
Combined, the state’s 293 school districts have unencumbered cash reserves totaling $699 million, Trabert said.
For many districts, that would be enough to cover any cuts in state or federal funding this year, he opined.
Of the three Allen County school districts, only one, Humboldt USD-258, does not have enough carry-over funds to make up for the lower state aid.
Trabert’s potential solution would not accomplish much for USD 257, however.
Dr. Craig Neuenswander, USD 257’s superintendent of schools, noted that the Iola school district’s budget losses this year — about $1.2 million or 9 percent, from 2008-09 — far exceed the $500,000 unencumbered balance for the school district.
The 9 percent loss also is much higher than the 3 percent cuts for all schools statewide, as cited by Trabert.
Neuenswander was among the audience of about 30 to hear Trabert’s presentation. Also on hand was Nancy Myer, superintendent of schools for Marmaton Valley-USD 256.
Both Neuenswander and Myer noted that those reserves are kept on hand in order to pay district employees and other bills when state aid funds are tardy. They pointed out that the state has been about three weeks late with its aid payments to schools over the past several months.
Dale Dennis, deputy education commissioner with the Kansas Department of Education, told the Register that the districts have enough carry-over funding to pay for about two months of expenses.
“We’d be in trouble if we didn’t have that” in reserve, Myer said.
Neuenswander noted that USD 257 board members intentionally started building their reserves two years ago in anticipation of budget losses. The district, for example, declined to purchase new textbooks last year, putting that potential $100,000 expenditure in the bank.
Neuenswander also said that USD 257 is bracing for the loss of about $323,000 in federal funds after next year. That money came from last year’s stimulus bill and is unlikely to be replaced.
Trabert acknowledged that circumstances varied from district to district.
“My only point is that (spending unencumbered carry-over funds) is an option that’s out there,” Trabert said. He also pointed out that the state is improperly delaying its aid payments to schools.
“The cash is there,” Trabert said. “The state is choosing not to pay its schools on time.”
TRABERT noted that total education funding increased about 29 percent, from about $4.3 billion in 2004-05 to $5.5 billion today.
Trabert said he used 2004-05 as the baseline because that was a year before the Kansas Legislature ramped up its education aid significantly to conform to a Kansas Supreme Court order, which said the state had failed to adequately fund its public schools.
He also spoke about the amount of money poured into non-instruction operating costs, which also increased about 25 percent, or $373 million, from 2005 to 2009.
Improved efficiency and more fiscal responsibility over the past few years would have prevented the existing budget crisis, Trabert concluded.
He also noted that the widely reported $510 million statewide budget deficit was not true lost dollars from last year, but how much the state is falling short in paying for planned increases in spending this year.
“There are ways we can balance this budget, even recovering this revenue loss, without raising taxes, without cutting services,” he said.
The Kansas Policy Institute is a private, non-profit organization based in Wichita that focuses on individual and economic freedom, Trabert said. He used figures from the State Department of Education.
