| | | March 26, 2010 - Discretionary levy authority could help
Schools for Equity in Education
Legislative Update
Considering Minnesota's economic outlook, the State is unlikely to provide ANY funding for our schools for at least five years. Flat funding would be the best case, it is likely that education will be cut in the next biennium. Therefore, the education committees are looking at broadening the school boards authority to levy for funding without voter-approval.
SEE fundamentally does not believe our schools should be funded through property taxes because the cost to the taxpayer is based on the property wealth of the individual districts. We find that property poor districts may not be able to access these dollars because of the heavy burden to the taxpayer. The quality of a child's education should not depend merely on where they live. Clearly, funding through local property taxes could increase the disparity in funding between districts throughout the state. However, the State's financial situation is so dire that the only new funding our schools will see in the coming years may be through property tax increases.
It is interesting to note that cities, counties and townships boards all have the ability to increase property taxes to meet the needs of their programs. Only school boards have to go to their voters to ASK for a tax increase. Referendums tend to be more about people protesting taxes in general rather than focusing on what is good for the children and their schools.
Three bills were heard this week that provide additional discretionary board levy authority. As of now the Governor does not support these bills. So even if they are incorporated in the education omnibus bill, they may cause a veto. We will watch to see what happens.
SF3088(Lynch)/HF3503(Newton) - School districts may levy to cover the cost of increased employer contribution rates for pension plans.
SF2769(Betzold)/HF3063(Newton) - School district are authorized to renew an expiring referendum by action of the school board.
SF3317(Bonoff)/HF3699(Greiling) - School districts may levy for $200 per pupil unit by board authority in years where the State does not provide inflationary increases to K-12 education funding.
 SEE Weekly Legislative Updates
Article extracted from the March 26, 2010 issue
 | |
