By RONNIE ELLIS
FRANKFORT — The chairman of the Senate budget committee said Tuesday cuts are possible to elementary and secondary education as the Senate makes changes to the House budget which cuts two days from the school calendar but maintains the basic school funding formula, SEEK.
Other senators on the committee – both Democrat and Republican – indicated they want those two days restored, saying removing them sends a bad message to federal officials considering Kentucky’s application for competitive federal Race to the Top funds to reform education.
The Senate Appropriations and Revenue committee began reviewing the $17.5 billion, two-year budget passed last week by the House. That budget relies on suspension of a popular business tax write-off and accelerating collection of sales taxes to produce about $370 million of revenue. But it also cuts several areas of the budget: reducing contract services and merit employees; changes to employee health benefits; cuts to most state agencies of 2 percent in each year; and cuts of 1.5 percent and 1 percent to higher education in each of the two years.
But the business tax changes aren’t popular in the Senate and A&R; Chairman Sen. Bob Leeper, I-Paducah, said Tuesday broad cuts are likely necessary to balance the budget – and that likely includes public education.
“Elementary and secondary education are still on the table,” Leeper said as the Senate considers cuts. He said after the review of the House budget he didn’t want to raise hopes that education could be spared before the Senate looked at all the options and the difficult choices it faces.
“Without new revenues, we face very difficult decisions,” he told the committee. “We can’t leave anything off the table at this point.”
Some senators also questioned the House decision to reduce the school calendar by two days, a move which the House says will save roughly $36 million each year but which is opposed by education groups and Gov. Steve Beshear. Senators on the A&R; committee wondered if removing the two days might hamper Kentucky’s chances of winning $200 million in the Race to the Top grants. Kentucky is one of the finalists for the competitive grants the Obama administration sees as a way to reform and strengthen education.
Sen. Tim Shaughnessey, D-Louisville, said removing the two days “should be the absolute last resort” in balancing the budget. “We could not pick a worse time to send a message to the nation’s capitol.”
Sen. Brandon Smith, R-Hazard, echoed those comments and after the meeting he thinks the Senate is likely to restore the two days.
“I think the will is there and it seemed to be echoed across party lines in the committee,” Smith said. “I just think it’s hard to stand by and look at $2.2 billion in more spending when we have cuts like these. And it could cause us to lose an edge in the Race to the Top.”
Smith referred to $2.2 billion in bonding for new schools, roads, and water and sewer projects contained in the House budget. And Leeper said there just isn’t any money to prevent cuts to most areas of the budget – indicating Senate resistance to several areas of the House plan.
Shaughnessey also questioned assumptions in the House budget about saving $30 million in corrections by holding inmate populations steady and by paroling as many as 1,000 Class D, non-violent, non-sexual offenders, most of whom are held in county jails. The state pays those jails a daily rate for each of its felony prisoners and local officials are howling about the financial impact on jails and county budgets.
RONNIE ELLIS writes for CNHI News Service and is based in Frankfort. Reach him at rellis@cnhi.com. Follow CNHI News Service stories on Twitter at www.twitter.com/cnhifrankfort.
