News

State seeks comments on school funding Tuesday night in Stevensville

Citizens from all parts of western Montana are invited to attend a meeting
Tuesday night in Stevensville to hear recommendations on improving school
funding and offer their comments on the items which Gov. Judy Martz will soon
review.

By JENNIFER SAUER Staff Reporter

The 12 members of a legislative committee will host the meeting to hear what the
public thinks of eight recommendations on school funding that were developed by
a governor’s council.

During the 1999 legislative session a bill directing the governor to create an
advisory counsel on public school funding was passed, according to Connie
Erickson, research analyst for a legislative committee. The counsel was to come
with suggestions for addressing school funding issues in Montana.

They presented a list of eight ideas and directed the Education and Local
Government Committee to conduct public hearings across Montana and take
comment on the eight recommendations. The Tuesday meeting in Stevensville is
one of the last in the state.

The recommendations:

Create a countywide levy to fund the property tax portion of the BASE budgets
of all school districts in a county.

Expand the county retirement levy to fund school district health insurance
costs.

Use a weighted GTB calculation for both the countywide BASE budget levy and
for the county retirement-insurance levy.

Adopt the transportation funding structure proposed in HB 163 from the 2001
session.

Calculate the average number for a district with declining enrollment by using
average enrollment of a three-year period.

Provide an annual inflation adjustment tied to the Consumer Price Index for the
basic entitlement, the per-average number belonging entitlement and special
education funding.

Use HB 124 block grant for debt service to expand school facility payments to
all low-wealth school districts that have outstanding general obligation bonds and
to increase the school facility payment.

Allow the school district trustees to allocate the remaining balance of a
district’s HB 124 block grants to any budgeted fund of the district.

Staff members from the Public School Funding Advisory Council will open
Tuesday’s meeting by detailing the eight recommendations in a PowerPoint
presentation. The meeting will then be opened for public comment and questions.
Other meetings have typically lasted two to two-and-a-half hours, Erickson said.

Once all the statewide hearings are completed, the Education and Local
Government Committee will produce a summary report and will submit it to the
governor. Based on what they heard at the public meetings, the committee will
advise the governor to accept of the recommendations. That report must be
submitted to Martz by Aug. 1. Sometimes this fall she will decide which issues
she will recommend to become legislation and have those items drafted into bills.

Numerous meetings across the state have already taken place. The committee
recognized that many public hearings are held in the large cities and decided to
hold their meeting in a combination of large and small Montana towns, Erickson
said. Stevensville was selected in hopes of drawing residents from Missoula,
Victor, Hamilton, Florence, Darby and Stevensville, she said.

The public hearing will begin at 7 p.m. Tuesday and will run until 10 p.m. or until
all comment has been collected. The meeting will be held in the multi-purpose
room of the Stevensville Junior High at 300 Park Street.

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