That three word title fits the final two days of legislative action as bills will be passed or killed and the final budget figures will be put together.

 

State aid  

The current budget proposal includes a three percent increase for school districts. A three percent increase would set the per-student allocation for the 2013-14 school year at approximately $4,626.

 

Two levy bills – Senate Bills 15 and 28 – could have an effect on the proposed increase, however. Representatives of Gov. Dennis Daugaard’s administration have stated in committee hearings each bill must pass with the levies proposed or the state would have to pick up the shortfall, which could jeopardize the three percent increase for school districts.

 

Senate Bill 28 adjusts property tax levies for the general fund of a school district with the commercial levy at $9.163, up $0.535, decreases the agricultural levy by $0.24, to $2.082, and increases the owner-occupied levy by $0.25, up to $4.279.

 

Senate Bill 15 calls for an increase of $.05 for the SPED levy. In the current version, levies would be set at $1.25 per thousand dollars of taxable valuation for the qualifying level and $1.45 for the maximum level.

 

Members of the House of Representatives passed amended versions of both SB 15 and 28 on Tuesday with inflated land valuation figures, but did not change levy rates.

 

The Senate did not concur with the amendments and a conference committee made up of Senators Larry Rhoden (29), Deb Soholt (14) and Tom Jones (17) and Representatives Dean Wink (29), Dan Dryden (34) and Spencer Hawley (7) will meet today to discuss both bills.

 

ASBSD is monitoring the bills.

 

One-time dollars

 

Both houses agreed on House Bill 1137, which will appropriate one-time money to K-12 school districts.

HB 1137 appropriates $5.8 million, which equals $45 per student, for schools, $200,000 to the state’s technical institutes and $250,000 to the Teach for America program. A similar bill, Senate Bill 138, was tabled by the House on Tuesday.

 

Another bill calling for the allocation of one-time dollars is scheduled for a conference committee today. Senators Deb Peters (9), Larry Tidemann (7) and Billie Sutton (21) will confer with Representatives Dean Wink (29), Mark Mickelson (13) and Scott Parsley (8) to discuss Senate Bill 90.

 

SB 90 would appropriate one-time dollars similar to HB 1137 with $500,000 provided for innovation grants as well.

 

SB 90 is unlikely to remain as is, because HB 1137 and HB 1164, which appropriates $500,000 in one-time innovation grants to teachers, school districts and ESAs, has passed both legislative bodies.

 

For updates on these bills, check the ASBSD blog and bill tracker throughout the day.