GOP school funding plan won’t stand
By Mike Dennison - IR State Bureau
HELENA — Sitting in the House Education Committee last Monday night, one could be forgiven for thinking one had stepped into a parallel universe.
Hard-core conservatives voted to pump millions of state dollars more into public schools, while dyed-in-the-wool Democrats warned of “dangerous” fiscal irresponsibility, voting against Republican amendments to inflate Gov. Brian Schweitzer’s education-funding bill.
By the time things had concluded at 9:10 p.m., the governor’s bill had $175 million of additional state money for schools, a 13 percent increase for the next two years.
For anyone who thinks public schools have been sucking wind the past decade, this GOP gold-lining of the governor’s bill had to look pretty good.
But for anyone following the political winds at the Capitol, they know this pile of money for schools is not going to stand, and that the final total will be much closer to the $100 million increase proposed by the governor.
Another likely casualty in this political chess game is any sizeable, across-the-board property tax cuts that currently are tied to the Republicans’ school-funding proposals. When the dust settles at the Legislature later this month, we’re more apt to see a modest increase in state funding for public schools, a la Gov. Schweitzer’s proposal, and property tax relief on a scale narrower than pitched by Republicans.
Sen. Don Ryan, D-Great Falls, the sponsor of the governor’s education bill and chairman of the Senate Education Committee, has some ideas on how things could unfold.
If there is money for schools beyond the governor’s plan, it may come in the form of “one-time-only” funds aimed at maintenance, start-up costs for full day kindergarten, or other items that are not on-going expenses, he says.
And if there is tax relief to be had, it could be targeted through an arcane school-funding mechanism known as “guaranteed tax base,” Ryan says.
Without going into the mind-numbing fiscal details, this move would encourage district-wide property tax cuts for all but a few school districts.
The districts with the highest local school taxes would be candidates for larger reductions, while districts with little or no local taxes — those that have substantial oil-and-gas revenue or large, industrial plants in their tax base — would get little or no tax relief.
“I believe the Republican amount (of money) they have in there (now) is not sustainable,” Ryan said Friday.
Also, don’t look for the Schweitzer administration to be acquiescing to the forces calling for school-funding hikes beyond what the governor has proposed.
The administration plans to hang tough on its proposed $1.8 billion state spending cap for the next two years, and there’s plenty of pressure to increase spending in other areas besides schools. That means higher school spending has some tough political competition for a finite pie of money.
David Ewer, the governor’s budget director, says signs already are on the horizon that the state economy may be slowing, so the administration is preaching caution on spending plans that must be sustained in the future, such as school funding.
There’s little doubt that many Montana schools, particularly rural ones, could use some additional cash. School officials in the hinterlands say it’s still difficult to hire and retain teachers at Montana’s relatively low teacher salaries.
Republican House Majority Leader Michael Lange says his party is sympathetic to this plight, and that’s one reason why they approved more money and a formula that helps smaller schools last Monday.
That bill — Sen. Ryan’s Senate Bill 152 — is headed to the House floor this week, where its fate is uncertain. If it crashes, some potential back-ups are on the back bench in Ryan’s Senate Education Committee.
Lange said last week he believes the final solution for schools will be somewhere between the GOP plan and the governor’s plan.
That may be. But schools got a big infusion of cash in the 2005 Legislature, and this time around, they appear to be further back in the political line.
That brings us back to our parallel universe: Democrats aren’t jumping on the Republican’s pricier school-funding bandwagon. And Democrats still control the governor’s office and the state Senate, which are the two biggest trump cards in the political triumvirate of the Legislature.
Hard-core conservatives voted to pump millions of state dollars more into public schools, while dyed-in-the-wool Democrats warned of “dangerous” fiscal irresponsibility, voting against Republican amendments to inflate Gov. Brian Schweitzer’s education-funding bill.
By the time things had concluded at 9:10 p.m., the governor’s bill had $175 million of additional state money for schools, a 13 percent increase for the next two years.
For anyone who thinks public schools have been sucking wind the past decade, this GOP gold-lining of the governor’s bill had to look pretty good.
But for anyone following the political winds at the Capitol, they know this pile of money for schools is not going to stand, and that the final total will be much closer to the $100 million increase proposed by the governor.
Another likely casualty in this political chess game is any sizeable, across-the-board property tax cuts that currently are tied to the Republicans’ school-funding proposals. When the dust settles at the Legislature later this month, we’re more apt to see a modest increase in state funding for public schools, a la Gov. Schweitzer’s proposal, and property tax relief on a scale narrower than pitched by Republicans.
Sen. Don Ryan, D-Great Falls, the sponsor of the governor’s education bill and chairman of the Senate Education Committee, has some ideas on how things could unfold.
If there is money for schools beyond the governor’s plan, it may come in the form of “one-time-only” funds aimed at maintenance, start-up costs for full day kindergarten, or other items that are not on-going expenses, he says.
And if there is tax relief to be had, it could be targeted through an arcane school-funding mechanism known as “guaranteed tax base,” Ryan says.
Without going into the mind-numbing fiscal details, this move would encourage district-wide property tax cuts for all but a few school districts.
The districts with the highest local school taxes would be candidates for larger reductions, while districts with little or no local taxes — those that have substantial oil-and-gas revenue or large, industrial plants in their tax base — would get little or no tax relief.
“I believe the Republican amount (of money) they have in there (now) is not sustainable,” Ryan said Friday.
Also, don’t look for the Schweitzer administration to be acquiescing to the forces calling for school-funding hikes beyond what the governor has proposed.
The administration plans to hang tough on its proposed $1.8 billion state spending cap for the next two years, and there’s plenty of pressure to increase spending in other areas besides schools. That means higher school spending has some tough political competition for a finite pie of money.
David Ewer, the governor’s budget director, says signs already are on the horizon that the state economy may be slowing, so the administration is preaching caution on spending plans that must be sustained in the future, such as school funding.
There’s little doubt that many Montana schools, particularly rural ones, could use some additional cash. School officials in the hinterlands say it’s still difficult to hire and retain teachers at Montana’s relatively low teacher salaries.
Republican House Majority Leader Michael Lange says his party is sympathetic to this plight, and that’s one reason why they approved more money and a formula that helps smaller schools last Monday.
That bill — Sen. Ryan’s Senate Bill 152 — is headed to the House floor this week, where its fate is uncertain. If it crashes, some potential back-ups are on the back bench in Ryan’s Senate Education Committee.
Lange said last week he believes the final solution for schools will be somewhere between the GOP plan and the governor’s plan.
That may be. But schools got a big infusion of cash in the 2005 Legislature, and this time around, they appear to be further back in the political line.
That brings us back to our parallel universe: Democrats aren’t jumping on the Republican’s pricier school-funding bandwagon. And Democrats still control the governor’s office and the state Senate, which are the two biggest trump cards in the political triumvirate of the Legislature.
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