A bill working its way through the Legislature that would increase public school funding and allow school districts more local control over property tax collections has Allen County leaders at odds.
Senate Bill 450, scheduled for a hearing in the Senate Education Committee this afternoon, would increase the state aid per pupil level by $148 during the next two academic years along and raise the cap on the amount local school districts can garner from local property taxes.
“It would be an advantage to property in wealthy districts and a disadvantage to property poor districts,” said state Sen. Jeff King, Independence-R.
Termed legislative options budget, local school districts are able to apply up to 31 mills of local tax on property within their boundaries, and the Kansas government has historically matched those locally levied funds based on district poverty rates.
A mill, based on assessed valuation, is $11.50 in property tax for the owner of a $100,000 home.
King, a member of the Senate Education Committee and the son of two retired Kansas school teachers, said he supports increasing the base state aid per pupil to make up for education cuts the last two legislative sessions, but wouldn’t support SB 450 making it out of committee as written.
“I am undoubtedly opposed to the provisions of lifting the amount of LOB and my constituents have spoken loud and clear that they do not want increased reliance on local property
taxes,” said the first-term senator via telephone Monday. “They do not want to promote financing of education that allows wealthy districts to raise a lot of money and poorer districts to raise a small amount for the same property tax brackets.”
Brian Pekarek, USD 257 superintendent, a district with a 63 percent poverty rate, sees SB 450 as a blessing. If passed, he said, the bill would add about $145,000 to the district’s expected budget.
“I think this is a good bill whether the cap increase is in there or not,” he said. “If this passes, we won’t have to cut $330,000 from the 2013 budget, only $188,000.”
Though he agrees increasing the LOB cap to 33 percent next year and 35 percent the year after won’t benefit property poor schools, Pekarek said Iola’s school district hasn’t reached the existing LOB cap and wouldn’t need to if the base state aid was increased.
“We wouldn’t need to (utilize a cap increase) if the state continues to adequately match those LOB dollars,” he said.
USD 257 garners about $3 million annually from a 26.9 mill local property levy.
If nothing else, Pekarek said, the bill offers stability.
“I can plan ahead with this bill,” he said, referring to the SB 450’s specifications for two years of specific increases. “The other plans out there have been scary because you didn’t know where things were going.”
The long-term stability expected to come from SB 450 might be a pipe dream. With education finance reform an agenda item for Gov. Sam Brownback, King said any education finance bill signed into law this legislative session will most likely be a one-year stop gap before fundamentally revising the way public education is paid for in Kansas.
