Senate Finance advances H.454 with placeholder CTE weight, agrees 10% supplemental cap and phased tax-rate transition

"This is Senate Finance. This is May 15, and we are going to finish up our work today on page 4 54," the committee chair said as the panel resumed work on H.454.

The Senate Finance Committee on May 15 agreed in committee to advance H.454 — the bill that sets a new school foundation formula — carrying forward Senate Education’s recommended model with a placeholder career-technical-education (CTE) weight of 1 and a phased implementation schedule. Committee members also agreed to allow supplemental district spending equal to 10% of a district’s base (not weights) and to include a multi-year tax-rate transition tied to the foundation rollout; several technical items were left to staff and the conference committee for final drafting.

Why this matters: H.454 would change how state education funding is calculated and phased in, with effects on property tax rates, district payments and school budgets statewide. Committee members said the bill aims to hold the total education payment at roughly the FY2025 level while introducing new weights (for poverty, English learners, small schools and a placeholder CTE weight) and mechanisms to ease districts into new payment and tax-rate outcomes.

Most important points

• Modeling and base numbers: Joint Fiscal Office (JFO) staff reported the Senate Education recommendation uses the FY2025 education payment target of $2,880,000,000 as the funding constraint. Under the recommended modeling, the foundation base was approximately $14,807 before adding the CTE weight; when a CTE weight of 1 was included to hold the FY2025 payment constant, the modeled base fell to roughly $14,541. JFO cautioned that different CTE full-time-equivalent (FTE)…