Votes to Pass Budget Cutting Bill Hold Public Schools Nearly
Harmless
The House and Senate put the finishing touches on a
compromise on budget cuts early Friday evening before adjourning. NEA-New Mexico and our Education allies fought hard to bring
down the original attempts by some legislators to drastically reduce
school funding this year. Those proposals originally ranged as
high as 10% before the session began and 6.8% in legislation prepared
by Senator John Arthur Smith at the beginning of the special session.
They had been reduced to near zero in the final compromises.
The House vote on the budget compromise is
at this link. Generally a yes vote supported our position to
hold education harmless. However, a few legislators indicated
their early opposition to any bill with any cuts to education, no
matter how small. While universal adherence to this standard
would have been counterproductive to reaching a final acceptable
compromise, we nonetheless respect Representatives Barela's,
Barreras', Chavez's, Giannini's, O'Neill's, Roch's, Rodefer's,
Rodella's, and Stapleton's pre-announced no votes on the measure as
will as the yes votes that carried the compromise forward as
supportive votes on the issue.
Similarly in the Senate, a yes vote supported our stand on the compromise, but we correspondingly respect
the no votes of Senators Eric Griego and Morales as keeping
commitments to vote for no education cuts, no matter how small.
Details of the Budget Cutting Legislation
By late Wednesday, the proposal had been reduced
to 2%, and by Thursday night the effective cut to the school
equalization guarantee (SEG-the major component of school funding) was
0.68% percent in House Appropriations and Finance Committee (HAFC) Substitute for HB 17 and
33 as it was passed out of the HAFC with all democrats voting yes and all republicans, except
Representative Jeannette Wallace, voting no.
The
cut to SEG (which funds most public school operations) was less than
the 2% delineated in the bill because another part of the legislation effectively
reduces it to 0.68% by restoring a
little over half of the cut by using public school capital outlay
authority funds to pay school
district and charter school property insurance.
Ninety-three percent of public school
support is contained in the SEG and 7% is in so-called below the line
expenditures—out-of-state tuition, emergency supplemental;
the instructional material fund; dual-credit instructional materials;
the educational technology fund; the schools in need of improvement
fund; public education department special appropriations;
apprenticeship assistance; and regional education cooperatives—reduced by 6.5%. Transportation distributions
were reduced by 4
percent and the Indian Education Fund was not reduced. When taken
together the reduction to all public education support comes to 1.04%.
While not
quite the 0% cut we had as a goal,
0.68% to SEG comes a whole lot closer than 10% does! Your and our
allies' advocacy and the hard work of many House and Senate members
within the two Democratic Caucuses turned what would have been a disastrous
10% cut (contained in a letter of warning to school districts earlier
in the month from Senators Jennings and Smith) or 6 or 7% cuts
in original legislative proposals into the current negligible cut.
Both Houses of the legislature have adjourned and HAFC Substitute for HB 17 and
33 is on its way to the Governor.
Call the Governor
Governor Richardson's clear indication
that he would accept no cuts to public K-12 education above 1.5% also
helped move the process toward the compromise. As late as
Wednesday morning, he personally assured your NEA-NM lobby team of his
willingness to resist any further cuts and his commitment to work for
new revenues in January. On Thursday afternoon, he told the team that
he was supportive of the approach to education in the bill, but
concerned about the effect on state employees and public services due
to the cuts to executive agencies. Governor Richardson has not
indicated whether or not he will sign the compromise. Call his office
and ask him to sign the education portion of the measure to preserve
schools from the threat of further cuts if more legislative action is
needed before January. Even if he line item vetoes cuts to
executive agencies, he could sign the portion dealing with public
schools and very narrowly create any new call for a special session to
deal with agency budgets only.
Legislation Giving Too Much Flexibility for
Superintendents Was Opposed by NEA-NM and Killed in House
Two pieces of legislation that went too far in giving school
districts flexibility in dealing with budget shortfalls were killed by
the legislature. Senate Bill 13 would waive "individual class load, teaching load,
length of school day, staffing patterns, subject areas, purchases of
instructional materials and the instructional material adoption cycle,
evaluation standards for school personnel, school principal duties and
driver education." for the 2009-2010 and 2011-2012 school years. Senate Bill 13 was amended on the senate floor yesterday to remove the most
objectionable portions and then tabled permanently in the House
Education Committee late Thursday night.
House
Bill 10, also went too far in relaxing the same state requirements
regarding class size in its temporary section M. House Education
Committee members removed all the objectionable sections of House
Bill 10 at a hearing Wednesday morning; the measure died on the
Senate calendar.
Balancing the State Budget
In additions to the some $206 million of cuts in HAFC Substitute for HB 17 and
33, other parts of the budget balancing plan included freeing up
$136 million by changing the way already approved capital improvement
projects are financed (bond proceeds would replace general tax
revenues allocated for the projects); using up almost $117 million
from cash balances of programs and canceling funding for computer
projects; and allocating $20 million in federal stimulus money to the
state's main budget account.
Flexibility from SB 9 Funds
School budgets received additional flexibility from Senate Bill 25; it authorizes school districts to make temporary
cash transfers into operational accounts from unexpended SB-9 revenue
generated from its local mill levy (normally required for expenses
related to maintenance of physical plant) to be used for operational purposes
other than salary expenses of school district employees. At the
time of each transfer, districts will be required to submit to PED a
repayment schedule for repaying the amount transferred that does not
extend beyond FY16. For FY10
school districts are projected to generate (follow link for district
totals) $108.8 million in local revenues with a state match of $18.4
million. In addition, districts carried over $107.1 million from
previous year balances.
Schools Spared, State Agency Employees May Be Hit
Hard
State agencies were trimmed by at least 2 percent (DA's
Attorney General, Public Safety, and Courts), some by 4 percent (all
elected officials' employees, such as Secretary of State, Treasurer,
etc). The agencies directly under the governor, however, took a much
bigger hit—7.6 percent. In order to hold
public schools nearly harmless, employees in these agencies who belong
to the American Federation of State, County, and Municipal Employees
(AFSCME) and the Communications Workers of America (CWA) may see much
grimmer consequences of the cuts than public school employees.
This results from having to balance a budget from cuts alone and not
being able to generate any new revenues—the other
half of reasoned budget making! We must work hard for new
revenues in the regular session of the legislature in January; not
only to offer relief to our brothers and sisters in AFSCME and CWA but
also to prevent any additional cuts to public schools and school
employees. NEA-NM, AFSCME, and CWA
released the statement at this link on the last day of the legislative
session.
Click Here
for Talking Points
Education
Partners' Poll on school funding and revenues |
