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Superintendent warns of large state budget gap and flags liability concerns in proposed AI legislation
Summary
Dr. Wendy Berhanzl briefed the Harrison School District 2 board on a special legislative session addressing an estimated $808,100,000,000 state budget gap and described district objections to proposed AI bills that could impose liability and new costs on school districts.
Dr. Wendy Berhanzl, superintendent, told the Harrison School District 2 Board of Education that a special legislative session was called to address what she described as an “$808,100,000,000 gap” in the state budget and that the governor and the legislature are considering measures to fill it.
Berhanzl said one proposal would require the governor to work with the Joint Budget Committee (JBC) outside of regular session to decide spending cuts. “We are fiercely pushing back on that,” she said, calling it a potential conflict with checks and balances and expressing concern about what programs might be cut.
Berhanzl also described active debate over proposed AI-related legislation sponsored by Representative Rodriguez and Representative Lindquist that the governor supports. She said district leaders worry the Rodriguez proposal would create “a huge liability to school districts” and could force districts to hire additional attorneys to manage compliance. She offered a hypothetical: if a district buys a vendor’s product labeled “AI compliant” but it later proves not to be, the district could face lawsuits even though it did not create the product’s code.
Berhanzl said districts are negotiating amendments and that, while one district (DPS) initially signaled support for the Rodriguez bill, DPS later retracted that position after reviewing the language. She said district leaders believe the Lindquist proposal is “the better of the two options” but described its language as “vague” and susceptible to legal interpretation.
On potential budget cuts, Berhanzl said lawmakers suggested dipping into state reserves, reducing programming and altering tax provisions, but she said details were not yet available. She noted the legislature had indicated it would “keep Medicaid whole,” but said an $808.1 billion gap would be difficult to resolve without affecting schools or reserves.
The report was delivered as an informational update; no formal board action on state legislation was recorded in the transcript.
