Bill saves money for schools
By Sarah St. John, The Olathe News

Kansas legislators decided Wednesday that they’d better save the money they have now in case there isn’t any later. The Legislature passed a three-year, $466 million school finance plan in the 2006 legislation. The economy is good now but could be iffy by the end of that three years, so representatives passed a bill Tuesday establishing the “Keeping Education Promises Trust Fund.” It sets aside $270 million now that is to be used in 2008 and 2009. Lawmakers nicknamed it the “lock-box bill.”

Olathe state Sen. Karin Brownlee co-sponsored the bill because she didn’t want history to repeat itself. She said the Legislature passed a two-year school funding package in 1999, despite economic forecasts that it likely wouldn’t be able to pay for it the next year. She voted against it.

“Sure enough, we came back in 2000, and in two weeks, we cut that,” Brownlee said.

The state’s revenue came in at $300 million more than projected this year, so it’s a good time to plan for the future, she said.

“This is a time when, looking at the budget profile today, we think we have the money, but we think it’s going to start getting tight after that. We should put it away now to build the trust, because in 2010 it’s getting questionable.” The bill passed the Senate by a vote of 37-1 on Jan. 9.

The Olathe school district took no official stance on the lock-box bill, said Gary George, the district’s assistant superintendent of management services. He said it could be beneficial if the economic picture changes. “The other concern is if the Legislature gets into tax-cutting mode, and suddenly they could reduce the revenue stream that might otherwise take care of needs in the state in the out years,” George said.

But several Olathe representatives said they wouldn’t vote to put aside money for an education finance bill that is fundamentally flawed. Although the bill passed 105-17 in the House, 10 of those no votes came from Johnson County representatives.

“All the problems embedded in the bill are still present,” said Rep. Lance Kinzer, who voted against the bill. Other Olathe representatives who voted against the bill include Ben Hodge, Anthony Brown, Mike Kiegerl and Arlen Siegfreid. Brown and Kinzer tried to include amendments to the bill that would correct what they perceived to be flaws in the 2006 school finance legislation. They wanted to change the definition of an at-risk student to one who isn’t performing well academically instead of those who receive free and reduced-fee lunches. Another of their amendments would have given more money to districts with high enrollments. Neither amendment made it to the floor for debate.

George said those are amendments Olathe would like to see, but there will be more opportunities for them.

“There’s going to be other education bills coming down the pike,” he said.

Kinzer said he thinks more legislators oppose the bill than voted against it.

“Quite frankly, most legislators are just exhausted with the school finance issue and want to put it behind us,” he said. “... It passing by such a broad majority was a desire on the part of legislators to change the subject.”

One curious part of the bill was the House’s decision to set aside another $76.6 million to tackle maintenance backlogs at the state’s public universities. It’s called the Regents Crumbling Classrooms Debt Payment Fund. It would go to pay off the universities’ bond debts, so all future mill levy revenues would go to maintenance as they were intended.

It was not part of the Senate version of the bill.

“I didn’t think it made sense quite frankly to link those two issues together,” Kinzer said.

Brownlee said there will be much ironing out of the Senate and House versions of the bill in an upcoming conference committee.

The lock-box plan and Regents plan are Senate Bill 30.

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