Today’s Courant covers the Democratic controlled Education committee’s work on Rell’s budget bill. From the Courant:
The Democratic-controlled education committee rewrote part of Gov. M. Jodi Rell’s education plan Monday, approving a complicated proposal that provides both additional education money and the option for property tax relief on a sliding scale for all 169 towns.
The bill would provide the biggest increase in educational cost-sharing funds in state history - $198 million - but the measure still requires approval by the House of Representatives and Senate as part of the overall $17.5 billion state budget. The final package, which requires Rell’s approval, is not expected to be completed until early June.
The changes address the loophole that would allow municipalities to use the increased funding for other purposes than education.
Under the committee plan passed Monday, towns were ranked based on the amount of money they now spend per student. The lowest-spending towns will be required to spend the highest percentage of the new state money on education.
For example, the lowest-spending town in the state, Ansonia, will be required to spend 60 percent of the new money on education. The remaining 40 percent could be spent on potential tax relief, but town leaders would have the flexibility to spend some of it on education and some on tax relief.
Other lower-spending towns like East Hartford, Bridgeport, Colchester, Hebron and Tolland - which all spend less than $9,000 per student - would all be required to spend more than 50 percent of their new money on education.
The highest-spending town in the state is Canaan, a tiny community of about 1,000 residents in Litchfield County that spends more than $16,000 per student. The town would have to spend only 5 percent of its additional education cost-sharing grant on education. The remaining 95 percent could be spent on property tax relief.
It looks like Norwalk will still face the same problems in getting it’s fair share of education funding. Like Greenwich and Avon, more money will be going up to Hartford then coming back down.
Some also opposed the bill’s effect on more affluent towns that would pay more in additional state taxes than they would receive in education aid. Greenwich taxpayers, for example, would pour an additional $60 million into the state’s coffers under Rell’s 10 percent income-tax plan, but the town would receive back only $2.5 million from the state in additional funding. Avon taxpayers would pay an additional $9.4 million in additional taxes in the second year, and their town would receive $1.1 million in the second year of Rell’s plan.
Norwalk would get about $5 million under the plan, which is an increase from the the slightly under $2 million Norwalk has received. The state income tax increase would likely contribute a larger amount than the increase of $3 million.
source: Hartford Courant, School Funding: Rell Plan Retooled, By CHRISTOPHER KEATING And ROBERT FRAHM, March 27, 2007
