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dailyneb.com
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Face of school aid changes
By Shane Anthony
Staff writer
A debate that pitted a new governor
against the Legislature produced yet
another change in the way Nebraska
supports public schools.
LB 149 received headlines from the
moment the Education Committee
advanced it unanimously Jan. 19. The
bill relieved schools of having to pay
back what then looked like a $22 mil
lion overpayment from the year before.
It also changed certification dates from
Dec. 1 to Feb. 1 in the hope that by using
more recent real numbers instead of
three-year averages, the state-aid for
mula would be more predictable.
The votes were decidedly for the
bill. But the debate was intense.
“State aid has been a fight in this
state since the day it was designed,” said
Speaker Doug Kristensen.
According to Kristensen, the fight
began in 1989 when senators passed
LB 1059, creating a pot of money for
F"
school funding. Then, in 1996, the
Legislature passed LB1114, which set
limits on property tax levies. Under that
bill, schools now receive $ 1.10 per $ 100
of property valuation. The figure will
drop to $1 in 2001.
Property taxes support only local
schools and governments. Before
LB1114 passed, local school districts
could set property tax levies to the levels
they needed. The bill’s passage meant
the state would have to put more of its
own money - raised primarily from
sales and income taxes - into schools to
support the loss of property tax rev
enues.
The Legislature did that in 1997
when it passed LB806, said Harrison
Sen. Bob Wickersham. That bill, he
said, set a formula for calculating state
aid. In simplified form that formula
reads “needs minus resources equals
state aid.”
Unfortunately, said Hastings Sen.
Ardyce Bohlke, the LB806 formula
was flawed. It used a three-year average
of data that was three years old to deter
mine needs.
Schools anticipated losing property
taxes after LB 1114 passed, and they
looked for ways to become more effi
cient So when the state Department of
Education certified schools’ state aid on
Deq. 1,1997, the figures were inflated.
A year later, the department certi
fied state aid for the 1999-2000 school
year. Included in that calculation was an
auditing mechanism called the “respin.”
The respin looks back to correct over
payments or underpayments from the
past year. The December 1998 respin
indicated schools had been overpaid by
$22 million.
Under state law, they would have to
pay that amount back.
The respin usually makes minor
corrections, Bohlke said, but a $22 mil
lion swing would have been disastrous.
Schools had already spent the $22
million without knowing there was an
error. The blame for that error, she said, j
rested squarely on senators’ shoulders. !
Please see SCHOOLS on 7
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CMcpatutAtim fo tfo 199X-1999 ^ I!
Jennifer Adaitis
Megan Adkins
Ashley Anderson
Christina Anderson
, Laura Anderson
Ryan Anderson
Courtney Arnold
Marc Boggy
Jennifer Burke
Joe Chasek
Zach Chipps
Angela Clements
Tomas Cosenza >
Justin Cramer
Veronica Daehn
Alicia Danielson
Nga Dinh
Kim Ebeler
Jessie Egley
TJ. Ehlers
Danielle Eickman
Allyson Friez
Rachel Gildon
Matthew Glenn
Mike Greene-Walsh
Megan Groathouse
Laura Grother
Chris Gustafson
Lindy Gustafson
Allison Hamiel
Christina Hansen
Geoffrey Hartman
Rick Hoesing
Melanie Hoffman
Paul Horky
Mandi Jefferis
Lindsey Johnson
Justin Kauk
Sarah Kippenbrock
Tiffany Kline
Mike Knockenhauer
Derek Lackaff
Alexis Lewis
David Lockwood
Jaron Luttich
Ernesto Marquez
Austin McKillip
Amy Mettenbrink
Stacia Miller
Koumtey Mueller
Katie Mueting
Megan Mullinix
Liz Noble
Dana Novak
Susanne Novak
Audra Prior
Scott Raymond
Geoff Reno
Todd Schkade
Ricki Scully
Andrew Seier
Andrew Shaw
Britt Sommer
Dan Swan
Anne Vlach
Kendra Wesely
Jaclyn Wilson
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