Legislative Update Week 10
Legislature gets school finance study briefing.
Today lawmakers received a briefing from the legislature’s lawyers about the school finance study conducted by Dr. Lori Taylor. This study will probably form the basis for development of a new school finance formula and the wider budget discussions for the remainder of the session. Layout errors in the report raised questions and concerns about the accuracy of the data itself. Dr. Taylor will provide a more detailed presentation on the study on Monday as well at noon in Room 346-S.
As legislators gather more information on school finance, they will also develop and act on the supplemental budget proposals. These issues will likely dominate the remaining weeks of the session.
Bills of interest
SB 422
deals with local option budgets (LOBs) for local school boards, making changes to the amount they can set and the process for going above the statutory cap. The bill has a hearing set for Tuesday, March 20, at 1:00 in the Select Committee on Education Finance. Listen in live
here
.
HB 2506
, which deals with the rehabilitation of abandoned property, had hearings in the Senate Ethics/Elections/Local Government Committee this week. No further action has been scheduled at this time.
HB 2753
mandates periodic legislative reviews of certain tax credits, including the historic tax credit. This bill passed out of committee, but hasn't been scheduled for General Orders on the House Floor.
