School Funding & Property Tax Relief - Is ranking 49th out of 50 good enough?

This past month in the state legislature has been of particular interest to Nebraska Educators.  Two bills, LB 958 and LB 959, both attempt to solve the problem of property tax burdens to landowners.  LB 959, introduced by Senator Sullivan on behalf of Governor Ricketts, attempts to control the spending by public schools.  LB 958, introduced by Senator Gloor, attempts to address the issue of fast growing agricultural land valuations and the subsequent tax levy against those lands.

I had the pleasure of listening to the debate on LB 959 in the Education Committee.  I was amazed to hear stories each 'side' of the conversation presented.  When the dust had settled and the smoke had cleared, the testimony of York superintendent Dr. Mike Lucas (@YorkDukePower) resonated the most.  He stated that we don't have a spending problem in schools, we have a school funding problem. Dr. Lucas later produced a blog outlining the fiscal reality of their district demonstrating how through fiscal responsibility, the current school funding formula, commonly known as TEEOSA penalizes schools.  You can read Mr. Lucas's blog post here: http://yorkdukepride.blogspot.com/2016/02/us-vs-them-is-no-win-situation.html

Over the past few days, I have been taking time to explore the historical financial reality of our district much the way Mr. Lucas did.  Here is what I discovered.  Nebraska ranks 49th out of 50 states in school funding.  The percentage of our state's budget dedicated to education has dropped from 32% in 1999 to 27% in 2015.  Below is a table showing the Cozad specific numbers since 2007.

	School Year	Amount of State Aid Received by Cozad	Increase or decrease from previous year	General Fund Budget	Cost Per Pupil	Statewide Average cost per pupil	Total Valuation	Property Tax Levy per $100 of valuation	Increase or decrease of tax levy from previous year
	07-08	$3,347,213.66		$9,421, 263	$8,550.00		$380,384,944	$0.950138	-4.69%
	08-09	$3,344,323.79	-0.09%	$9,817,703	$8,964.84		$390,802,189	$0.964890	1.55%
	09-10	$3,989,938.73	19.30%	$10,675,566	$9,513.54		$425,090,910	$0.979139	1.48%
	10-11	$3,905,643.98	-2.11%	$11,641,080	$9,855.05		$454,294,150	$1.000001	2.08%
	11-12	$3,015,254.95	-22.80%	$11,847,296	$9,097.86		$489,662,099	$0.956431	-4.36%
	12-13	$2,761,619.09	-8.41%	$11,847,296	$10,396.27	$10,709.67	$512,425,447	$0.956562	0.01%
	13-14	$3,003,570.91	8.76%	$12,123,236	$10,839.09	$11,040.44	$590,978,746	$0.956557	-0.0005%
	14-15	$2,684,740.22	-10.62%	$12,665,492	$11,304.00	$11,364.62	$713,201,677	$0.956212	-0.03%
Est.	15-16	$2,094,542.06	-21.98%	$13,283,784	TBD	TBD	$796,440,220	$0.978978	2.38%
Est.	16-17	$941,819.00	-55.03%	TBD	TBD	TBD	TBD	TBD	TBD
			Total Decrease since 2007 = 71%						Percent Increase since 2007 = 3%

So what can we draw from these numbers?  State aid to Cozad schools has decreased by 71%, yet our local tax levy has only gone up by 3% from 2007 to 2016.  Property valuations have increased by 87% over this same time period.  The drop in state aid has forced local school district to rely more heavily on the local tax base for funding.  In 2007 just 46% of our budget came from property taxes, but with the loss of 71% of our state aid to schools, that has forced local property taxes to make up 54% of our budget today.  Undoubtedly, there is a burden upon large land owners and it is imperative that as communities across the state, we come together and find a solution to the problem of how our schools are funded.

To bring this back to the legislative bills LB958 and LB959, they are not only bad for education, they do not address the central problem of school funding from the state.  I encourage all of you to continue this conversation for the sake of our students.  The next time you hear a politician say they are going to cut taxes, just remember, those cuts have to be made up elsewhere.  Our current Governor, Senator Gloor, and Senator Sullivan are simply passing the buck.  Instead of tackling the issue of how we fund schools, they are shifting our focus away from the real issue.

Are you still not convinced that the way education is funded in Nebraska is broken?  Then ponder this: If the Nebraska Cornhusker football team ranked 49th out of 50 teams, would you not wonder if that system is in need of change?