Political maneuvering strains school budgets

The Missouri General Assembly’s September veto session made history for the number of items legislators overturned, but it was the items that didn’t garner enough votes area educators are most grateful for.

Legislators overrode 58 vetoes during a one-day veto session Sept. 10, but many tax-cut votes were sustained, prompting the governor to release $143.6 million for local school districts and higher education institutions.

Gov. Jay Nixon originally withheld the funds in June after he vetoed bills containing more than a dozen tax cuts his office said were not accounted for and would have reduced state and local revenues by some $776 million annually, including $93 million annually from dedicated Proposition C sales tax revenues for local schools.

“This is a tactic the governor has used before, and it needs to stop,” said Rep. Lynn Morris, R-Nixa. “We can’t work with one set of numbers and the governor has a different set of numbers because it’s hurting our schools.

“Education shouldn’t be a political football with money withheld to serve a need. We need the legislative body and the governor to work together so the students don’t suffer.”

The funds released include $100.2 million for the K-12 foundation formula and $43.4 million in performance funding for the state’s public colleges and universities.

“In the last two years, the House and Senate have given more money to K-12 education than at anytime in the state’s history, but we still aren’t fully funding the formula,” Morris said. “That creates a budgetary gap educators have to fill and withholding funds makes the budgeting process even harder.”

It’s a gap Ozark R-6 School District Superintendent Kevin Patterson is all too familiar with. Patterson said the formula was funded at 93 percent last year with a promise of 96 to 97 percent this year, but the Christian County school district knew they couldn’t bank on the projection.

“No matter what we were promised or what we budget, at the end of the year, the state can’t deficit spend. Years of funding cuts have taught us to be conservative,” he said. “For Ozark, the difference between 93 percent and 97 percent is about $1.5 million. We could do a lot with that, but we know we can’t depend on it.”

Patterson said setting a district budget during the summer poses challenges for all educators as funds are often uncertain.

“The governor adds money, the governor cuts money, the legislature gets involved and it becomes a budgetary mess quickly,” he said. “Forty-six percent of our budget comes from the state. That’s about half of our money that’s in flux.”

Local higher education institutions also felt the budget pain. Missouri State University set its fiscal 2015 budget just days before Nixon announced he would withhold funds, leaving a $4 million gap to fill.

MSU President Clif Smart said via email the 5.2 percent increase in operating funds passed by the legislature would be released to the university during the next nine months. 

“It is budgeted – it is not extra,” he said. “We are paying bills like increased utilities and insurance and funding the cost of living increase with it, among other things.”

Additionally, the budget withholdings also include funding for MSU’s fledgling occupational therapy program, for which the university is planning an estimated $17 million building. Smart said $1.3 million for the program and the expansion of health care programs at its West Plains campus has not yet been released.

Morris believes most legislators consider education funding important, but said getting everyone on the same page is the challenge.

“It’s our children’s right to get an education and our duty to fund that. This isn’t a time for political games,” he said.