LEGISLATIVE UPDATE: August 1, 2007

by State Representative Addia Wuchner

“The Perfect Storm for Boone County Schools”

The 2007 Special Session adjourned on Monday July 30 th my husband and I departed for vacation. Tuesday morning, I woke to the sun, the ocean, the smell of fresh brewed coffee, and an early morning call for Boone County School Supernatant Brain Blavatt alerting me to the fact that the stars had aligned and the perfect storm has broken out in Boone County .

That prompted a flurry of phone calls on my part. With in an hour or so the Governor's Chief of Staff Stan Cave , Secretary of Education Laura Owens, Secretary of State Finance Robbie Rudolph , State Budget Director Brad Cowgill , Senators Roeding and Westwood, Representatives Koenig and Santoro had committed to meet with the Boone County Schools District on Thursday and I would join them via conference call.

Topic… the re-assessment of commercial property within the Boone County coupled with the school funding formula that had set the storm in motion. The projected “increase” in commercial property value within the Boone County School District alone is approximately $813.8 million. Many of these increases in assessments will be contested, and there will most likely be adjustments, but substantial growth and re-assessment will prevail. The current situation places the Boone County School District in a financial nightmare of an approximate $5 million deficit.

I know it is difficult to understand; increase in property assessments should mean more money for our schools but, the recipe for disaster is Kentucky 's school funding formula known as SEEK. The unintended consequence is the inequity and disproportion in the current SEEK funding formula that dramatically effects our schools. For every $2.00 collected in school tax in the Boone County School District and sent to Frankfort , only $1.00 is returned by the state to the district. On average in other districts around the Commonwealth, for every 75 cents collected and sent to Frankfort , a $1.00 is returned to them by the state in SEEK formula funding.

Most of us agree, the formula must be change. But the crafters of Kentucky 's education reform - KERA and those General assembly members today from around the State who's districts benefit the current funding formula, hold tight and are resistant to any change that would shift dollars from their regions. For new legislation to pass both Chambers, we have to craft a win-win situation rather than a shifting of dollars. A solution that would allow the Boone County School District to be held "safe and harmless” is the only viable response given the current situation.

I often hear from other members of the General Assembly that Boone County has not taken all of the “growth nickels that the law allows”. This is an issue of equity that really gets under my skin, as our citizens have already stepped up to the plate. I do not believe that it is fair nor equitable to ask the citizens of Boone County to respond with an additional growth nickel tax. Boone Countians should not be required to shoulder the education of the children of the Commonwealth at the expense of our own.

Governor Fletcher has committed his administrative resources to work with Boone School administration, and your legislators, to find solutions to Boone's funding issues. We adjourned with assignments, follow-up resolutions and a plan to meet again the week of August 13th. I will keep you posted on our progress.