The education base budget bill that passed the Utah Senate and House this morning serves as a starting point for the legislative budgeting process. And this year, public education begins this process minus more than 11 percent of the current year’s budget.
The Public Education Appropriations subcommittee was directed to cut 7 percent, as was each appropriations subcommittee, but decided to reduce the budget by an additional $91 million. This money came from several line items lawmakers describe as “below the line,” including eliminating all student busing, adult education, the K-3 reading improvement program, matching funds for school nurses, extended-year for special educators, year-round math and science centers, the performance-based compensation pilot and regional service centers.
Rep. Merlynn Newbold (R-South Jordan) co-chairs the appropriations committee and introduced the base budget proposal, S.B. 1, in the House floor debate. She explained why she and co-chair Sen. Chris Buttars (R-West Jordan) decided to cut the additional $91 million from the base budget with the goal of adding it back over the course of the next several weeks.
“We wanted more time and more information before that was allocated to those below the line programs,” Newbold said.
The base budget also cuts the Flexible Allocation WPU Distribution, a line item that was created to help school districts pay for social security and retirement costs. A portion of this money, $76 million, is reallocated “above the line” to pay for enrollment growth. Rep. Marie Poulson (D-Salt Lake City) pointed out in the House floor debate that this doesn’t actually fund student growth.
“So I’m concerned that what we’re doing here is just a shifting of funds, kind of like using your Master Cards to pay off your Visa bill.”
Poulson said enacting such a cut would have a “disastrous” affect on Utah’s classrooms.
In the Senate debate, Sen. Karen Morgan (D-Salt Lake City) said the $76 million isn’t really funding growth because the money would have been sent out to local education agencies, LEAs, anyway.
“I want you to understand: I believe that there’s been some smoke and mirrors going on here,” she said.
Sen. Lyle Hillyard (R-Logan), who is the co-chairman of the Executive Appropriations Committee, introduced the bill in the Senate. He said what the Public Education Appropriations Subcommittee did was “very insightful.”
“It funded what we wanted to do and now we can zero in on those other programs that have been put in to see which ones we want to keep,” Hillyard said.
The bill passe the Senate on a 20-7 vote and the House on a 56-18 vote. This base budget is merely a blueprint for the final budget, which is expected to have many of these cuts restored. However, if this budget sends a signal, it’s that the funding distribution in the FY 2012 budget could be considerably different than the current year’s.
If you missed the S.B. 1 debate, here’s the link to the video for today’s Senate and House debates.
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