By Rep. Jon Dunwell
The second week of session has come to an end. At this beginning stage, we don’t really have much floor action. Everything’s about committee work, and more specifically, subcommittees. Last week the House held more than 100 subcommittees on proposed legislation. Things are starting to move. Bills already are dying or being moved to the next step.
As you read headlines about a proposed bill, remember any legislator can draft a bill. To become a law, it must be assigned to a committee … be assigned a subcommittee and pass … be brought before a committee and pass … be placed on the calendar…and be passed by the House. And after all that, it must go through the same process with the Senate and ultimately be signed by the Governor. It’s a process filled with questions, input, and revisions. And it’s one I love and believe in.
We’ve had a couple of meetings to discuss what we are hearing from our school leadership, our thoughts about the Governor’s school funding proposal, and to begin to form the House’s plan. From our school districts, we have heard the following…
• Inflation continues to have significant impact on budgets.
• Minimally, current labor contracts require either CPI or 3 percent, whichever is lower.
• Eighty percent of a school’s budget goes to wages.
• Last year’s minimum salary legislation has created salary compaction that needs addressing.
• A significant number of schools could go on budget guarantees, inadvertently creating an increase of property taxes.
• It’s crucial schools learn our plans sooner rather than later.
We will continue to work hard to develop the best plan that addresses the important needs of our schools and our, or I should say, your budget. Though we’ve had great discussions, we have yet to reach an agreed-upon direction.
As I journey through this process, a couple of numbers always catch my attention. There are two expenses the state chooses to pick up from property taxes related to schools. First, when a county or city places a property in a TIFF, to ensure schools are not deprived of their full funding, the state backfills those dollars to the tune of $95.2M. And when the State Supplemental Aid is increased, it creates a property tax increase in the formula. Since Republicans have been in control of state government, they have relieved property taxpayers of that burden to a tune of an anticipated $136.7M in 2026. Important numbers for us to keep in mind as we enter our discussions about property taxes.
Let’s keep the discussion going.