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JBC introduces School Finance midyear adjustment; state share cut by $103.5 million
Summary
The Joint Budget Committee introduced the School Finance Mid Year Adjustment Bill, which reduces the state's share of total program by $103,500,000 due to lower pupil counts and higher local shares; the committee voted 6–0 to introduce the bill and allowed technical corrections.
Andrea Ewell, JBC staff, told the Joint Budget Committee that the School Finance Mid Year Adjustment Bill reduces the state share of total program by $103,500,000 in the current fiscal year because pupil counts came in lower than expected while the local share rose. "We are able to decrease the state share of total program by $103,500,000," she said.
The bill also clarifies treatment for districts that would receive a negative phase‑in increment under the new formula. Ewell said those districts are "held harmless to the 2025–26 calculation under the old formula," a change that increases costs by $643,000 compared with not applying that clarification.
Representative Taggart and other members asked staff to explain paragraph 3(a)(I), which Jake Baus of the Office of Legislative Legal Services described as a drafting provision that keeps total program for most districts as the higher of the legacy calculation or the new formula (with a 15% difference rule) while making a narrow exception to prevent reductions for certain districts this fiscal year. Taggart noted the exception helps his district, which would otherwise have lost about $640,000 under the new calculation.
Senator Mobley moved to introduce the bill and to give staff permission for technical corrections, stating, "I move that the committee... move for introduction the bill regarding school finance midyear adjustments and that we give permission for technical corrections." The committee voted to introduce the bill; the motion passed on a 6–0 vote.
The committee asked staff to circulate the three‑box graphic used in previous presentations to help members and their colleagues visualize the options. The bill will start in the House; sponsorship and cosponsorship decisions were assigned for follow‑up before the committee meets again on Monday.
The committee left substantive calculation choices (for example, whether to remove the held‑harmless clarification) in staff control only insofar as changing that language would require republishing a different set of line‑item numbers, which Ewell said the office had prepared if needed.
