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House passes school finance conference committee report

After a relatively short debate, the House voted 101 to 19 to adopt the conference committee report on SB 531, the fourth year school funding bill.

The only controversial issue raised by some legislators was the change to the 10 mile rule under which a student in one district can be transported to a neighboring district even if his/her home district attendance center is closer. The concerns on this were not enough to sink the bill but signal an interest in revisiting this idea later.

The no votes were mostly from Johnson County legislators who don’t support the current school finance formula, calling it unfair because Johnson County provides a large portion of tax revenue for schools but gets less back from the state.

A motion by Representative John Faber (R-Brewster) to not adopt the report was defeated on a vote of 38 to 74.

OOPS! Senate KPERS “bonus check” was pulled from budget bill

Sorry folks, we erroneously reported that the Senate budget bill contained the KPERS bonus check. While the bonus was added in on a motion by Sen. Anthony Hensley (D-Topeka) it was subsequently stripped out on a motion by Sen. David Wysong (R-Mission Hills). Wysong’s motion which came very late last night stripped out every amendment that had added money to the budget.

That means relief for KPERS retirees is only in the House budget.

Evening

Senate passes school finance conference committee report!

School funding done for 2008 session

There was almost no debate as the Senate voted 37 to 3 to adopt the conference committee report on SB 531, the fourth year funding bill.

Included in this bill are:

• A $59 increase in base state aid per pupil (BSAPP),
• A formula for the distribution of state Medicaid replacement aid in special education,
• The formation of a task force to study the special education funding formula,
• A fix for the high density at-risk funding that currently creates a potential for some districts to lose thousands of dollars with a very small change in student population,
• A change to the transportation formula that allows children to be transported from one district to another even if a school in the neighboring district is further away than the one in the child’s home district, and
• School district consolidation incentives.

The money for this financing is contained in this bill and so is not subject to on-going negotiations on the omnibus budget bill.

Adoption of this report by the Senate means it now goes to the Governor for her signature. School finance is now wrapped up for the 2008 session.

Voting NO on the bill were Republicans Phil Journey (Wichita), Dennis Pyle (Hiawatha), and Tim Huelskamp (Meade). Senate Peggy Palmer (R-Augusta) was absent.

The last things to be considered are the omnibus budget bill now being negotiated in a conference committee and the final disposition of the coal plants.

It might appear that coal is done after the failure of the House to override the Governor’s veto but under the dome nothing like this is done until the final gavel!

As for the budget, there is no school money in the negotiations with the exception of some proposed changes to early childhood (pre-school) monies that were put into the Children’s Initiative Fund. In addition there may be some discussion of the KPERS COLA which is contained in the House bill but not the Senate bill.

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