The school finance bill that came from deliberations in the Legislature last weekend was bittersweet for administrators who for the past several years have had to figure how to keep their financial ships from taking on water.
But, it was just the first shoe to drop. A court decision on general fund support is yet to come.
The bill brought a nervous sigh of relief from some, who knew they’d face dire straits if figures being bandied about during the previous week were part of the outcome.
Cuts to transportation, which for a time were very much a part of the bill, would have been a terrific blow to rural districts. Marmaton Valley (Moran-Elsmore) buses many of its students, and reducing aid for transportation would have been a bitter pill.
An advantage was an increase in the artificial per-pupil base state aid used for figuring local option budgets, raised from $4,433 to $4,490. That means districts will gain revenue by having higher bases to figure local support (i.e., property taxes) for LOBs, which may be used for day-to-day costs of running schools, same as the general fund. They also will get more state aid, but significant increases will hinge on proposing LOB budgets at a higher percentage of the general fund, and higher property tax levies.
A dark side, and predictable since it was in Gov. Brownback’s budget, was a general state aid increase of $14, to $3,852, for base state aid per-pupil. A raise is good, but not one to instill euphoria when base state aid remains about $650 less per pupil than what it would have been today if not for cuts and deferred raises the past few years.
If all of this sounds a little convoluted, join the crowd.
LET’S GO back a few years.
General fund budgets became the state’s full responsibility in the 1990s when the Legislature took it on, and established a statewide property tax levy — 35 mills at the start — to fund the bulk of education.
All worked well with tweaks for a while. Times were good, revenue poured into state coffers generously enough that annual increases to meet inflation were possible and the statewide levy was reduced a tad at a time, finally dipping to today’s 20 mills.
Then the dot.com bubble burst and the recession hit.
Rather than increase taxes — judged politically unsavory — cuts were made. Education wasn’t alone. Local governing bodies had to deal with loss of local ad valorem property tax reduction funding, commonly referred to LAVTR. For some that was a load.
The advantage for cities and counties over schools is that they have greater latitude to raise operating capital through property tax increases and with enterprise funds, such as Iola’s utility departments.
