From the Palm Beach Post
by Dara Kam
Is a $2,335-a-year pay cut for the average teacher worth a $44.72 property tax savings for the average Florida homeowner with a homestead exemption?
That's a key question behind the math that Gov. Rick Scott's administration is banking on for his pared-back school spending plan as the legislature gears up to begin its annual session Tuesday.
Scott proposes a K-12 budget for the coming year that is $1.75 billion less than the current education budget. About half of that reduction is because the federal government won't be sending the $873 million stimulus for education that it sent last year.
The next-biggest cut is Scott's proposal to reduce the state-required portion of local property taxes by about $658 million, something he promised during his election campaign in an appeal to taxpayers.
A slight drop also is expected in other local property taxes for schools, while the state revenue committed to public education remains basically the same.
But while Scott has touted his $1.75 billion cut to tea party supporters, others in his administration have been suggesting to lawmakers a few steps they could take to possibly recoup as much as a $1.1 billion of that loss.
One of those ideas would use the savings from another of Scott's proposals - the one to revamp the state's pension system by requiring all public employees enrolled in the state retirement system to begin contributing to their retirement.
More than 300,000 school board employees statewide are enrolled, and the school districts could supplement their education budgets with the money that the districts and the state would save from having those employees contribute 5 percent of their pay to their pensions, according to budget worksheets and comments Scott's aides have made to legislative committees.
House Democratic Leader Ron Saunders of Key West has likened that plan to a "5 percent state income tax" for school district workers to pay for the reduction in education spending.
Pension a potential pinch
Roosevelt Middle School civics teacher Mike Dowling said he can weather a 5 percent salary reduction even though he, like other Palm Beach County teachers, hasn't had a pay raise in three years.
But he fears it could have a dramatic effect on other teachers who are single parents and existing on a shoestring budget.
"I don't know that we can afford to make much less than we make," Dowling said. "We're talking about teachers not being able to pay the light bill, the phone bill. It scares me that Gov. Scott is trying to balance the budget and give tax breaks to wealthy people on the backs of the teachers."
Students would receive less, too.
Scott's $16.5 billion K-12 budget proposal would cut per-student spending to $6,196 - $703 less than this year's $6,899.
Homeowners, meanwhile, would see a tax savings.
Although property taxes are usually considered the province of local governments in Florida, lawmakers long ago gave themselves the power to set a minimum dollar amount that counties must contribute to schools from property taxes each year.
This year, lawmakers asked counties for $7.2 billion, based on an average statewide tax rate of $5.38 cents for each $1,000 of taxable property value.
Scott wants to roll that back to $6.5 billion, based partly on lower property values but also on a lower average tax rate of $4.95 per $1,000 taxable value. That would be a tax cut of about $658 million, or 9.1 percent.
For the owner of a home worth $129,000, the state's median value, just the 43-cent cut in the tax rate would mean a savings of $44.72, assuming the owner took the $25,000 homestead exemption allowed for school taxes.
Another Palm Beach County teacher, who did not want her name or her school's name used, pointed out that those with the most expensive homes would benefit the most.
"At this point, what are we doing? We're going to give to his friends who have expensive homes," the second-grade teacher said. "So are we looking to give the very wealthy tax breaks at the expense of what we can do for our children to help them compete in the global economy?"
Making up for losses
The governor's budget also projects $209 million less from discretionary taxes that school boards are allowed to raise additionally. Overall, that has Scott's plan delivering $867 million less in property taxes for educ
Scott's aides have suggested to lawmakers, however, that they could make up some of that reduction if they approve a separate proposal of the governor's to have public employees, including school district workers, contribute 5 percent of their salaries to their pension plans.
According to worksheets, the savings that the state and districts would derive from school employees paying for part of their pensions would amount to about $519 million.
Using the pension savings, the per-student spending would drop only $508, instead of $703, from the current spending of $6,899.
But the pension plan has faced rough going in committee meetings in both chambers. Even some GOP leaders see the change as punitive to Florida teachers, whose salaries are among the lowest in the nation, according to one recent study. A National Education Association report ranked Florida's average teacher salary at 37th among the 50 states and the District of Columbia in 2009-10 and estimated it could fall to 47th in 2010-11.
Senate Education Appropriations Chairman David Simmons, R-Altamonte Springs, objected that Scott's plan equates to a $2,000-a-year pay cut for a beginning teacher earning $40,000.
For a teacher making the statewide average of $46,708, the 5 percent pension contribution would cost $2,335.
Simmons and others have proposed phasing in employee contributions to pensions, which also would allow the economy to stabilize further.
Misplaced values?
As much as he's concerned about the potential loss in income, Dowling said he's concerned that respect for teachers is at an all-time low since he became an educator 18 years ago.
"When did teachers become the enemy?" he asked. "We are the people that you trust your children's future to. Society trusts me with their most precious resource, their children. And I'm wondering what we value."
Others accuse Scott of reneging on a campaign pledge to hold education harmless.
"Every candidate who ran in this last election ran on a campaign saying, 'I support education,' " said Palm Beach County schools lobbyist Vern Pickup-Crawford. "Nobody ran on a campaign saying, 'Elect me. I'm going to cut schools 10 percent.' Including the governor."
Meanwhile, even as Scott's aides have criticized legislative leaders for using stimulus money in last year's budget, they have suggested during pre-session committee meetings that school districts might have as much as $555 million in federal stimulus money left from what they received last year.
That's because legislative budget leaders instructed districts last year to save the "Education Jobs" stimulus to use in 2011.
Adding leftover stimulus money to the pension savings would put the statewide per-pupil spending at $6,600, or only $299 less than this year's spending.
But it's unknown how much of the federal money school districts have socked away.
"We're going into the fourth year of significant budget reductions and economic downturn," Florida School Boards Association lobbyist Ruth Melton said. "So the assumption that they had the money lying around and could hang onto it is presumptuous to say the least."
http://www.palmbeachpost.com/news/state/gov-rick-scotts-proposed-education-budget-1-75-1302720.html?page=2
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