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6/30/2009
Ellis: State budget places burden on property taxpayers
The new state budget will dramatically increase property taxes for schools at the same time the state is cutting its own spending on K-12 public education, state Senator Michael Ellis said today. In addition, the repeal of state laws regarding teacher compensation and mediation arbitration will undoubtedly add more pressure on already stressed school budgets.
“The Governor and the Democratic Legislature are congratulating themselves for protecting public education during a fiscal crisis,” Ellis said. “What they’re not telling you is that it’s the property taxpayer, not state government that is shouldering the burden of that protection.”
State controls limit how much schools can increase revenues between state general aids and the property tax. Under the new state budget, schools will be allowed to increase revenues by $200 per pupil in each of the next two years. The state, however, is cutting the amount it spends on general aids by $147 million in each year of the biennial budget.
“That means the property taxpayer gets stuck for the entire bill – that is, the entire allowable increase and the reduction in state aid,” Ellis said.
According to the nonpartisan Legislative Fiscal Bureau, the allowable increase of $200 per student amounts to about $172 million statewide per year, making the school property tax increase $319 million in each of the next two years when added to the cut in state aid. That increase will be mitigated somewhat by an increase in school property tax credits, but the net result will be an increase in school property taxes of $290 million in each year of the biennium.
According to the Fiscal Bureau, state support of public education will decrease from 65.8 percent in 2008-09 to 63.7% in 2009-10 and 62.6% in 2010-11.
“Those numbers are worse than that, because $789 million in one-time federal stimulus funds are already being used to replace state general aids in 2008-09 and 2009-10,” Ellis said.
To add insult to injury, the state budget repeals the qualified economic offer in state law that allowed school boards to avoid mandatory arbitration of teacher contracts if teachers were awarded compensation increases of at least 3.8 percent.
“Even worse than the elimination of the QEO, however, is the repeal of two arbitration factors in current law that will definitely have an impact on school budgets,” Ellis said.
Current law requires arbitrators to give “greatest weight” to the existence of government-imposed revenue controls and to give “greater weight” to local economic conditions when making arbitration decisions. The state budget repeals those requirements for arbitration related to teacher contracts.
“In other words, the arbitrator doesn’t have to take into account the community’s ability to pay for a disputed contract and the arbitrator can award a contract that exceeds a district’s revenue limit,” Ellis said. “School boards would be forced to go to referendum and, if the referendum failed, they will have to cut educational programs or even lay off teachers in order to pay the higher contracts.
“When you hear the governor say he protected education, remember he did so by reaching into your wallet to pay the bill.”
Mike Ellis is a Republican and represents the residents of the 19th Senate District.
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