Schools are officially set to receive a 3.35 percent increase to the per-student allocation next year after Gov. Dennis Daugaard signed Senate Bill 188 in to law this week.
On unanimous votes, the Senate and House passed a bill to provide an additional $2.2 million in ongoing state aid for districts. The 3.35 percent increase is the first such increase above three percent since 2008.
“We’re grateful for the commitment to schools shown by the legislature through this increase,” ASBSD Executive Director Wade Pogany said. “We know not all our district’s funding problems are solved yet, but the legislature and governor have set a promising direction.”
Along with SB 188 comes the condition that the additional $2.2 million dollars be used to increase teacher pay.
Sen. Bill Van Gerpen, who introduced the 3.35 percent amendment, said there will be a “letter of intent” that goes along with the additional dollars requesting they be put towards teacher pay increases.
The additional $2.2 million will be distributed via an extra $16.72 per student to school districts, which means, at a minimum, districts will be asked to apply the total amount received from the additional dollars to teacher salaries on an ongoing basis.
Gov. Daugaard also signed Senate Bill 37, which provides his proposed three percent increase to the PSA and sets the property tax levies for the school district general fund for next school year.
SB 188 supplants SB 37, however, and the 3.35 percent increase will set the PSA at approximately $4,781 for the 2014-15 school year.
The general fund tax levies established by SB 37 set the commercial levy at $9.10 per thousand dollars of valuation, down from $9.20, the agricultural levy at $1.78 per thousand dollars of valuation, a decrease of 31 cents, and the owner occupied levy at $4.25 per thousand dollars of valuation, a four cent decrease.
The new levy levels accompany the bill to support the Cutler-Gabriel share of funding between the state and local effort, which is approximately 54 percent and 46 percent, respectively.
In addition to SB 37, Gov. Daugaard signed Senate Bill 38, which sets the property tax levy for the special education fund at $1.478 per thousand dollars of valuation for next year.
ASBSD supported each bill.
For more analysis of the 2014 legislative session, download ASBSD’s legislative summary – scheduled for publication next week – from the Publications and Forms page.