Plan protects school budgets
BOISE – Legislative budget writers have agreed to reimburse Idaho school districts for 70 percent of their losses next year if Congress doesn’t reauthorize payments to counties hurt by cutbacks in federal logging.
Sen. Shawn Keough, R-Sandpoint, had made the same $3.5 million proposal earlier as part of the public schools budget, as had Rep. Shirley Ringo, D-Moscow, but it failed then. On Thursday, the plan got strong support, passing the Joint Finance-Appropriations Committee on a 19-1 vote.
“I believe it is important for us to do this, and I do not see this as undermining” the congressional effort to reauthorize the funds, Keough told JFAC. “Schools, by the Constitution, are our responsibility.”
The Secure Rural Schools and Community Self-Determination Act, often called the Craig-Wyden bill, makes payments to districts and counties to replace falling timber receipts from federal forest lands throughout the West. But it expired last year.
Boundary County schools alone would lose more than $250,000 next year if the Craig-Wyden payments end. Kellogg schools stand to lose twice that much, and the Wallace School District could be out $200,000. The McCall-Donnelly School District in central Idaho could lose more than a half-million dollars.
In the debate over the public schools budget last month, some legislative budget writers said they opposed the replacement funding because it could undermine congressional efforts to reauthorize the funds, because it made up for a federal shortfall with state money, and because it only covered losses to school districts and not to county road funds, which also face losses.
Keough said school districts must set their budgets in May, and then must sign employment contracts based on those budgets – and at this point, they’ll have to make big budget cuts or raise local property taxes to cover the loss of the federal payments. “For some of those school districts, it is substantial,” Keough said.
This time, all North Idaho members of the committee voted with Keough for the plan.
“We’re trying to do our best to make the schools whole to the degree that we can,” said Rep. George Eskridge, R-Dover.
Ringo told the committee, “The fact is these are federal lands that we have within our borders, and we should get fair compensation for the taxes that we aren’t able to provide ourselves.”
Sen. Jim Hammond, R-Post Falls, seconded Keough’s motion to approve the funds, and Rep. Frank Henderson, R-Post Falls, voted in favor.
Sen. Joyce Broadsword, R-Sagle, said school districts in Shoshone County have been particularly hard-hit by the loss of the timber funds. “Even with 70 percent (reimbursement), they’re going to be cutting back,” she said.
The only opposition to Keough’s motion came from Sen. Elliot Werk, D-Boise, who offered an alternative plan to provide the same amount of money, but take it from a different source. Keough’s proposal was to take the money from the $100 million-plus public school stabilization fund. Werk said that money should be kept for its original purpose – making up any shortfall if state tax revenues fall during an economic downturn, now that the state is responsible for all basic school operations funding.
Before this year, a big chunk of school operations funding came from property taxes, but lawmakers eliminated that property tax levy in a special session in August. Werk said lawmakers have been “pilfering” from that school fund this year, but his alternative plan, to take the money from the state’s economic recovery reserve fund, failed on a 4-16 party-line vote.
If Congress reauthorizes the Craig-Wyden payments, the state money would revert back to the public school stabilization fund.
The appropriation bill still needs approval from both the House and Senate and the governor’s signature to become law, but budget bills rarely are changed after they’re set by JFAC.