Members of the House Appropriations committee passed the bill that would supply schools with the proposed three percent increase.

 

On a 9-0 vote, committee members supported Senate Bill 37, which, with the three percent increase, would set the per-student allocation at $4,764 for the 2014-15 school year.

 

ASBSD supports the bill.

 

ASBSD Lobbyist Dick Tieszen said school districts were still “struggling to keep up” with their funding needs and were “grateful” for the three percent increase proposed by Gov. Dennis Daugaard.

 

A three percent increase would mark the second such increase received by districts in as many years after a stretch of three years where districts received (from FY11 to FY13) no increase, an 8.6 percent cut and 2.6 percent increase.

 

The proposed three percent increase was higher than the 1.6 percent increase required by state statute, which calls for the PSA increase to be three percent or the change in CPI-W.

 

In addition to providing the three percent increase, SB 37 sets the property tax levies for a school district’s general fund for fiscal year 2015. 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.

 

The commercial levy would be set at $9.10 per thousand dollars of valuation, down from $9.20, the agricultural levy would be set at $1.78 per thousand dollars of valuation, a decrease of 31 cents, and the owner occupied levy would be set at $4.25 per thousand dollars of valuation, a four cent decrease.

 

SB 37 now moves to the House floor for debate and vote. If passed, it would be presented to Gov. Daugaard to be signed into law.

 

For updates on the bill and other legislation, check the ASBSD Blog and Bill Tracker page.