A plan currently in a Kansas Senate committee doesn't solve the school funding issue; it just passes the buck
At the beginning of the Kansas Legislature's current session, Gov. Bill Graves and Lt. Gov. Gary Sherrer predicted that legislators would introduce many "smoke and mirrors" budget proposals to deal with the state's financial crunch.
It didn't take long for that prediction to come true.
This week, the Senate Ways and Means Committee opened hearings on a plan to ease the state's budget problems without raising taxes. Much of the focus of the plan is on funding for public schools in Kansas. The approach being proposed may indicate that the bill's primary sponsors, Senate President Dave Kerr and Committee Chairman Steve Morris could use a trip back to math class.
The bill, the sponsors say, would save the state $23.7 million in the current fiscal year and avoid a tax increase. The only problem is that the bill almost certainly would put local school districts deeply in debt and guarantee local property tax increases next year.
The plan would reduce state aid to public schools by $39 per pupil in the current fiscal year and freeze state aid at that same level for next year. But the sponsors have a wonderful plan for local districts. Their bill would allow school districts to dip into their reserve funds or borrow money to cover their operating expenses. The districts then would be required to pay off that debt by using property taxes next year.
The state isn't willing to raise taxes, and this particular bill says nothing about dipping into the state's reserve funds, but the lawmakers think it's perfectly fine to put local school districts in the position of doing both.
The plan is presented as an alternative to raising taxes, but all it does is transfer that tax burden to local districts rather than dealing with it on the state level. The same legislators who are saying they see little public support for tax increases are pushing a plan that would relieve the state of making the tough decisions on tax increases and passing that buck to local school boards.
We'd like to think that our state legislators have the best interests of the state at heart, but this attempt to abdicate the state's responsibility to public education seems nothing short of gutless.
One conservative legislator quoted by the Associated Press Tuesday predicted the Legislature would approve cuts in the current budget. "I think enough folks will recognize that we've got to live within our means," he said.
"Living within our means" usually doesn't include passing on the bill for basic services to someone else. What legislators don't seem to understand is that taxpayers pay the bill either way. Local districts can buy now and pay later, but who's to say the economic situation will be any better next year when the bills come due?
Smoke and mirrors? Not really; it's just good old-fashioned buck-passing.
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