09.04.08: Assembly Budget Committee Hears Republican Budget Proposal
By David Walrath
The afternoon of September 3, the Assembly Budget Committee heard the Republican proposal for the 2008-09 State Budget. This proposal relies on bonding lottery revenues for $1.9 billion in one-time money to fund schools at the 2007-08 fiscal year level.
Dave Walrath, SSDA Lobbyist, testified regarding the Republican proposal and indicated that the lottery proposal has questionable legality and relying upon those funds would create great problems for small districts that have small budgets and cannot afford to have a $2 billion hole if the lottery proposal is illegal. He raised concerns that allocating the lottery to achieve equity between high and low categorical aid districts and among elementary, unified and high school districts would be difficult and could have legal problems. Finally, he concurred with prior testimony from the Education Coalition members regarding the Proposition 98 funding base being reduced from the Governor’s August compromise level and the Conference Committee level.
The lottery proposal would effectively reduce the Proposition 98 base and require the first $700 million of 2009-10 Proposition 98 new funds to be used simply to restore back to the 2008-09 level. The Republican proposal does include the recommendation to increase the Proposition 98 guarantee by $1.2 billion in lieu of future lottery revenue receipts. The $700 million is the difference between the one-time $1.9 billion and the proposed ongoing $1.2 billion. Because the ongoing $1.2 billion would require a successful vote of the people, this $1.2 billion would be at-risk for future school funding. For these and many other reasons, the education community and SSDA opposed the Republican proposal because of the legal and equity questions, along with the high probability of risks to ongoing education funding.
The Republican proposal is expected to be voted upon next Monday, September 8.
