CSBA-backed bill would save transportation funding
Published: January 30, 2012
As part of an effort to stave off further cuts to home-to-school transportation funds that would devastate small and rural school district budgets, CSBA and other members of the education community have helped craft and are avidly supporting legislation that would more equitably spread the pain by cutting general fund revenues to districts and county offices of education.
As part of the midyear budget trigger that was pulled Dec. 15, $248 million in current year transportation funding was eliminated—a cut critics say is inequitable because it would mean huge per pupil cuts to some urban and many small and rural districts.
Supporters say that Senate Bill 81 represents a more equitable way to spread the budget-cut impact across all districts and county offices. The bill would impose an across-the-board cut in revenue-limit funds to local educational agencies—a reduction of about $42 per pupil.
CSBA has been instrumental in the effort to alert the governor and other key policymakers to the inequity of the transportation cut and has compiled detailed information about the impact of the cuts on every LEA in the state—numbers that have provided a basis for a number of news stories about the issue.
“With some categorical funds, you can lose the money and choose not to offer the service,” said CSBA President Jill Wynns. “But districts can’t stop offering transportation. [Brown’s proposal] is inequitable. ”
CSBA Assistant Executive Director for Governmental Relations Dennis Myers said CSBA has long opposed cuts to specific categorical programs like transportation because there’s no fair way to spread the pain.
“If schools are forced to take cuts, we agree that the only equitable way to do so is through the revenue limit. The education community has rallied around this as an issue,” Meyers said.