Updated: Senate passed school levy bill

The Senate is now debating amendments on a bill to increase the levy lid. I’ll update when they start debate on final passage. Here is the bill.

Sen. Cheryl Pflug: “This isn’t temporary,” she said. “This is not about the state doing statewide funding,” she said, “we did drop that bill, it did not get a hearing — to increase statewide funding and simultaneously decrease local levy dependence,” she said. “Please reject this bill and let’s get a good proposal,” she said.

Sen. Rodney Tom: “I do support the underlying bill,” he said, but he wants to talk about levy equalization. He said he thinks poor districts should be helped. “The problem with levy equalization is it’s one of the most random formulas we have,” he said. He said it’s not on a per-student basis — which means some schools get far more than others. “We could do better. Hopefully with this work group, we will do better,” he said.

Sen. Eric Oemig: “For those of you who think the budget is going to cut hundreds of millions of dollars from education funding,” he said, this bill will help. “There are only 14 districts that don’t run a local levy,” he said. Their per pupil spending ranges wildly.

Sen. Linda Evans Parlette: “We all support public education,” she said. She said voting against the levy bill does not mean you don’t support schools. “This bill, I have to tell you, my local districts are already supporting their schools.” She said this bill will allow schools to ask for more via levies, but she said people don’t have more to give. “There is only so much money right now … now is not the time. There isn’t enough money out there.” She said if the Legislature had their budgets in order and was getting out on time, she might feel differently.

Sen. Cheryl Pflug: “Levy equalization is a problem. It is also current law,” she said. The reason: Levy lid lifts. “When you increase levy lids, you increase the disparity.” She said this bill is not the right thing to do.

Sen. Rosemary McAuliffe said the bill allows schools to ask voters for a little more money to make up for what the state isn’t providing. “This gives our school district that opportunity,” she said. “This is a very important bill. We must not tie the hands of our school districts.”

The bill passed 29 to 19.

Tags: levy lid lift