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Joint Budget Committee deadlocks 3-3 on pausing new K‑12 funding formula; trigger motion fails
Summary
After several hours of debate the Joint Budget Committee voted 3‑3 against a motion that would have declared the statutory “trigger” for pausing the new K‑12 funding formula had been met, meaning the committee did not invoke the pause.
The Joint Budget Committee voted 3‑3 Tuesday on a motion to declare the trigger in House Bill 24 1448 met, a vote the committee’s chair announced as a failure that keeps the new K‑12 funding formula in place for now.
The committee’s lawyer, Andrea Ewell of Legislative Council Services, summarized the statute before the vote. “The legislation says that, basically, in the event that the Joint Budget Committee finds that 1 of the conditions to pause the formula occurred, the Joint Budget Committee shall promptly notify the speaker of the house, the president of the senate, the minority leaders of the House of Representatives in the Senate, the education committees of the House and the Senate, and the Commissioner of the Department of Education that the condition was met,” Ewell said.
Why it matters: voting to declare the trigger met would have paused the newly enacted school funding formula and required the state to calculate total program using the prior formula; declining to do so leaves the new formula in place while the legislature continues separate work on the School Finance Act.
Committee members spent more than an hour debating whether the statutory conditions had been met and whether applying the plain statutory test reflected the drafters’ intent. Some members said the change in state revenue met the letter of the statute and therefore required a pause; others argued that the statute’s purpose — to respond to an economic downturn that would make the new formula unsustainable — had not been satisfied.
The motion was made by the committee’s vice chair; when the chair asked if there were any objections he announced: “Seeing 3, that motion fails on a vote of 3 to 3 with Bridges, Taggart, and Soretta objecting.” The committee record shows the motion failed for lack of an affirmative majority.
Procedural note: under the statute discussed at the meeting, the committee must affirmatively determine the trigger has been met; a tied vote does not constitute such a determination.
Next steps: committee members said the School Finance Act and ongoing negotiations will determine final allocations for this budget cycle. Staff told the committee they are continuing to model alternate scenarios and additional statutory language that may be needed in follow‑up bills.
Ending: The committee moved on to other figure‑setting items after the vote; members repeatedly emphasized that separate School Finance Act work will control precise allocations to districts once that bill is finalized.
