State lawmakers battle over how to increase funding for schools

JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. -- With time diminishing and tension rising, state lawmakers were at loggerheads Wednesday on how much to increase funding for public schools.

The disagreement delayed work -- at least temporarily -- on the rest of the roughly $19 billion budget for the upcoming next fiscal year, and raised the prospects that lawmakers could need a special session to finish the budget.

Missouri's constitution requires lawmakers to complete a budget by May 10, although there are no penalties if they come back for a special session in ensuing weeks. The 2003 fiscal year starts July 1.

At issue is how much money to add to the $2 billion base that elementary and secondary schools are receiving this year.

To keep up with growth in schools' population and local property tax rates would require an additional $220 million under the formula used to calculate school payments. But given a tight budget, no one is pushing for that amount.

The House retooled the funding formula -- averaging previous years of a district's assessed valuations -- to call for a $175 million increase, then included that amount in its budget.

The Senate appropriated a $100 million increase, and retooled the formula to be fully funded with as little as a $125 million increase.

'Money not there'

On Wednesday, a special conference committee agreed to go with the House version of the formula. But that doesn't mean that budget negotiators will agree to the $175 million increase.

Put simply, "It can't happen -- the money's not there," said Senate Majority Leader Bill Kenney, R-Lee's Summit.

Senate Appropriations Committee Chairman John Russell also has balked at a $175 million increase. To provide a nearly 9 percent increase to schools would bust a budget in which numerous other agencies already are taking cuts, he said.

"The education community needs to be aware that we have a budget shortage," said Russell, R-Lebanon.

Russell had a heated exchange Wednesday with House Speaker Jim Kreider, who appointed himself to the panel negotiating the education budget and has insisted that schools get a $175 million increase.

"The House position, is the number one priority is schools," said Kreider, D-Nixa. "This is about investing in the future of the state ... and our kids' future."

Kreider has delayed the appointment of House negotiators for other parts of the budget while trying to force a resolution on school funding -- a move that senators said could cause lawmakers to miss the budget deadline.

Democratic Gov. Bob Holden's office has been lobbying for the House position of a $175 million increase for schools. But "we will settle for the most they'll give us," said Emmy McClelland, a former Republican lawmaker who is Holden's assistant director of legislative affairs.

Budget bills are HB1101-1112 (Green).