A Florida Senate panel this morning approved a bill that, for the first time, would distribute local tax revenue evenly to charter and traditional public schools.
But it also stalled a measure that would increase districts’ local taxing authority. And school districts argue that measure must be connected to the charter funding proposal.
The ensuing debate raised new questions over how Florida lawmakers plan to overhaul school facilities funding for both charter and traditional public schools.
Sen. David Simmons, R-Altamonte Springs, sponsor of both bills and chair of the education budget subcommittee, said school districts had reached a desperate point. Property values haven’t fully covered from the Great Recession, and school districts have lost a quarter of their pre-recession taxing authority since 2008. But the state population is growing again, and so are districts’ construction needs.
Simmons cited the testimony of district leaders, who visited his subcommittee a few weeks ago. They described grim rituals like “bucket day,” when they rush to different campuses to catch rainwater leaking from their roofs.
“I believe very strongly … that we are in a crisis situation regarding the capital expenditures in our districts,” he said.
The bill approved today (SB 376) by the Senate Education Committee would steer district property tax revenue to charter schools on a per-student basis, with extra funding going to schools with large low-income or special needs populations. It would solve a long-term problem facing charter schools, which have watched their facilities funding erode.
Under an amendment added today, the bill that stalled (SB 604) would have restored all of the taxing authority districts lost after the Great Recession. If each district used its expanded authority to the fullest, they would be able to raise more than $900 million in new revenue to pay for school buildings, but the actual amounts would be decided by local school boards.
Representatives for school districts said the two measures need to be connected. Without the additional authority to raise property taxes, they said, the increase in money flowing to charter schools would be fiscally impossible to bear.
“The bills will need to move forward together,” said Ruth Melton of the Florida School Boards Association. She acknowledged that giving districts more taxing authority could be a “heavy lift” in the Republican-controlled Legislature.
Simmons tried to pre-empt critics who might cast his proposal as a tax increase. The measure would simply restore taxing authority districts had in the past, and school boards would decide whether to raise taxes or not. The Legislature, he said, should not “inappropriately tie their hands.”
At the same time, he decided to postpone a committee vote on the bill, saying he wanted to consider adding a requirement that any tax increase be approved by local voters in a “streamlined referendum,” or by a super majority on a school board.
Sen. Tom Lee, R-Brandon, said he’s convinced funding for school buildings is one of the biggest issues facing public education in Florida.
However, he added, lawmakers might be better off restructuring the way the state funds school buildings entirely, finding a way to provide funding through the state budget rather than relying on property taxes.
“This is a general revenue problem,” he said.
