$631 million needed to fix school facilities
Posted on Wednesday, March 7, 2007
The price tag for upgrading Arkansas’ public school facilities was revealed Tuesday — $ 631 million.
The Academic Facilities Oversight Committee recommended that the Legislature target the state’s surplus, the General Improvement Fund, for the biggest chunk of that money, $ 456 million.
But disagreement soon emerged over whether to dedicate all of that to facilities or leave open the possibility it could be spent on something else.
Some legislators wondered whether it was best to set that amount aside from the surplus because they said that much construction at public schools couldn’t be done during the state’s two-year budget cycle.
Richard Weiss, director of the state Department of Finance and Administration, told the committee that the governor prefers setting $ 456 million of the projected $ 844 million surplus aside for facilities.
“This is the one time we know the money is available,” Weiss said. “We know we’re under a mandate by the [state ] Supreme Court to build these facilities, to follow through with the pact.”
Sen. Shane Broadway, D-Bryant, who has taken the lead on facilities for the past several years, said that it’s best to set it aside now because “we have no idea” whether the state will have such a robust surplus in the future.
“Fiscally, it’s the best position, and it’s legally the best position,” Broadway said.
But Senate President Pro Tempore Jack Critcher, D-Batesville, said after the meeting that he prefers an alternative: keeping the money in a contingency fund, which would allow it to be spent on other things, such as economic development, if it couldn’t all be spent on facilities in 2008 and 2009.
“It’s a lot of money,” Critcher said. “Lots of money. I don’t think they can spend $ 456 million in two years. I think we should fund everything they need for the next two years. We all want to make sure they have all the money they need, that there’s enough money to fund the buildings that will be built. But we don’t need to necessarily put excess money in there.”
Critcher said the idea for the contingency fund came from Sen. Shawn Womack, R-Mountain Home. He recommends $ 400 million from general revenue and the surplus.
Critcher and Womack have been among the legislators seeking local project dollars to be set aside from the surplus.
The General Improvement Fund also is seen as a resource for minor highway improvements, a cancer center at the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences, a discretionary fund for the governor for economic development, and for various higher education buildings.
Rep. David Rainey, D-Dumas, said Tuesday he may seek money from the fund to help his tornadoravaged hometown, which was hit by two tornadoes Feb. 24.
Gov. Mike Beebe opposes the Critcher-Womack plan, said Matt DeCample, a spokesman for the governor.
“The only plan the governor supports is setting aside the needed money for facilities and leaving it set aside for facilities,” DeCample said. “Everyone knows you can’t spend all the money in two years. But it’ll be needed beyond that two years.”
House Speaker Benny Petrus, D-Stuttgart, said approving the $ 456 million is “the only thing to do. Don’t let it be touched, even though it might not be spent in the next biennium.”
Tom Kimbrell, executive director of the Arkansas Association of Educational Administrators, said superintendents still had questions about the projects that were recommended to be funded and in which school districts they would be.
“We’re still trying to ingest it all,” Kimbrell said. “There’s still a lot of districts out there wondering whether their projects will be approved or not. It’s a lot of money.”
Specifically, he said he wondered why cafeterias weren’t approved projects.
Petrus said the facilities money shouldn’t depend on which districts’ projects were approved.
“It can’t get into a territorial deal or a geographical deal,” Petrus said. “You have to fund it on its merits.”
Funding school facilities was up to local school districts until the 2002 Lake View opinion from the Supreme Court. That ruling declared that the state is responsible for ensuring that public school funding in Arkansas is adequate and equitable — and that goes for facilities, too.
In 2005, the Legislature approved $ 114 million for facilities, but the Supreme Court later said that wasn’t enough.
So, in the 2006 special session, the Legislature set aside another $ 50 million for facilities.
Since then the state has evaluated longer-term public school facilities costs.
In all, 1, 646 long-term projects have been approved in what the state calls the “partnership program” for facilities, with a total state and local cost of $ 1. 4 billion.
The state’s share is $ 631 million and will be paid with cash.
The local share varies from district to district, depending on a ratio of the value of property in the district compared with enrollment. Districts would fund their share with cash, ongoing revenue or a bond issue funded by a property tax increase approved by local voters.
In addition to the $ 456 million from the surplus, the state’s share would be funded by: $ 70 million from general revenue this session. $ 70 million from general revenue in the 2009 session. $ 35 million left over from $ 50 million approved for facilities in the 2006 special session.
Rainey and Sen. Hank Wilkins, D-Pine Bluff, asked for a list of the approved projects.
Broadway said he didn’t want to release that yet because the projects aren’t final. There were 942 projects rejected. The recommendations on those projects have come from the state’s Division of Public School Academic Facilities and Transportation. The three-member Academic Facilities Commission will have final say. The members are Weiss, state Education Department Director Ken James and Mac Dodson, director of the Arkansas Development Finance Authority.
Sen. Gilbert Baker, R-Conway, asked, “Are we going to base our projects on funding or make our funding decisions based on the projects ?”
Broadway said the state must fund the needed projects regardless of cost to meet the court’s directive.
FUNDING BILLS Legislators took other steps Tuesday with the goal of complying with the school funding decision. The Senate unanimously passed three bills to fund education. Broadway said he hopes what the Legislature is doing now will help the 2009 General Assembly avoid having “somebody across the street watching,” referring to the state Supreme Court. Two retired justices appointed by the court are reviewing what the Legislature did in the April 2006 special session. “We have done our job and responded to the court mandate,” Broadway said.
House Bills 1631 and 1632 would take the state’s share of per-student “foundation” funding from $ 1. 82 billion to $ 1. 83 billion in 2008 and $ 1. 85 billion in 2009. The money would include “enhanced” funding, above what legislators and Beebe say is necessary to comply with the “adequacy” requirement.
Senate Bill 261 would appropriate for the Public School Fund $ 2. 57 billion in fiscal 2008 and $ 2. 60 billion in fiscal 2009. This includes an additional $ 40 million for preschool programs.
The three bills now go to the House.
TORNADO Rainey said he started thinking about tapping the surplus to help Dumas recover from the Feb. 24 tornado. The Federal Emergency Management Agency has not approved Arkansas’ request for disaster assistance in Dumas. “We’ve got some serious problems that require assistance,” Rainey said. “If we don’t get some assistance, we’re going to have a severe impact in terms of the loss of jobs and health care due to those loss of jobs.” He said he doesn’t have an amount in mind. He said first he’s checking with state agencies to see if existing programs can help. He said he expects his colleagues in the Legislature would join him in helping Dumas with surplus dollars. Beebe and U. S. Rep. Mike Ross, D-Ark., have complained about FEMA’s stance. DeCample said Beebe is still working to get the federal government to help. He said that tapping the surplus for Dumas “may be something we look at some time but we haven’t gotten there yet.”
SCHOLARSHIPS Also Tuesday, the House Education Committee recommended HB 2299 by Rep. Steve Breedlove, D-Greenwood, to start a state needs-based scholarship program. The effort reflects one of Beebe’s campaign themes. Breedlove said the program would require no new money, for it would come from existing scholarship programs.
Information for this article was contributed by Michael R. Wickline of the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette.
FEEDBACK:
Something to say about this topic? Submit a Letter to the Editor online
