Opinion ID: 2518321
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 7

Heading: local option budget

Text: H.B. 2247 provides a phased-in increase in the LOB cap from the current 25 percent to 27 percent in the 2005-06 school year, 29 percent in the 2006-07 school year, and 30 percent in the 2007-08 school year and thereafter. The plaintiffs argue local districts have been forced to use the LOB to cover the inadequacies of state funding. They also argue the use of the LOB increases disparities and exacerbates inequities. The Board takes issue with the legislature's failure to provide for equalization for the new level of LOB authority above 25 percent for the 2005-06 school year only. The absence of equalization means the dollars for the optional increases must come entirely from each district's property tax base, which can worsen wealth-based disparities. The State argues that the LOB acts as a counterweight to low-enrollment weighting, at-risk weighting, and perhaps even bilingual weighting, because the middle-sized and large districts expected to benefit from the increased LOB receive little, if any, of these weightings. This argument fails because increasing the LOB does not address inadequate funding of middle-sized and large districts that have high concentrations of bilingual, at-risk, minority, and special education students, high pupil-to-teacher ratios, and high dropout rates, but also have low median family incomes and low assessed property valuation. For example, the Emporia school district demonstrates that size of enrollment does not necessarily correlate with high property valuations or low numbers of students who are more costly to educate. The original intent and purpose of the LOB was to allow individual districts to levy additional property taxes to fund enhancements to the constitutionally adequate education provided and financed under the legislative financing formula. The evidence before the trial court demonstrated that the inadequacy of the formula and its funding had forced some districts to use the LOB to fund the State's obligation to provide a constitutionally adequate education rather than enhancements. See Montoy II, 278 Kan. at 774. H.B. 2247 does nothing to discourage this practice. We also agree with the plaintiffs and the Board that, in fact, the legislation's increase in the LOB cap exacerbates the wealth-based disparities between districts. Districts with high assessed property values can reach the maximum LOB revenues of the district prescribed percentage of the amount of state financial aid determined for the district in the school year (K.S.A. 72-6433[a][1], amended by S.B. 43, sec. 17) with far less tax effort than those districts with lower assessed property values and lower median family incomes. Thus, the wealthier districts will be able to generate more funds for elements of a constitutionally adequate education that the State has failed to fund.