School funding among top priorities for Legislature

Hands down, Flathead area legislators say defining a "quality" education and paying for it will be the dominant issue in the coming legislative session.

It is the issue that will drive budget debates, they say, because a quality education is widely expected to entail more spending. Just how much more will be determined in the weeks to come.

The issue bubbled to the top in April when a District Court judge backed a lawsuit brought by a coalition of school districts. The judge ruled that the state had failed to meet its constitutional duty to "provide a basic system of free quality public elementary and secondary schools" and the state Supreme Court backed the decision.

The ruling did not define a quality education. It left that matter and how much money is necessary to implement the definition to the state Legislature.

"School funding will be the biggest issue," said Rep. Dee Brown, R-Hungry Horse. "Everyone has a differing opinion on what is a quality education …. and that is the crux of the issue."

Brown, a retired teacher, said school funding is expected to be such a dominating and potentially divisive issue that some legislators have already suggested that it be the exclusive topic of a special session.

"Some legislators have already suggested that we end the session 10 days early and hold a special session during the summer to deal with it," she said.

Senate Minority Leader Bob Keenan, R-Bigfork, said the coming session will be the same as past sessions in most regards, but education funding will present new challenges.

"There will be about 600 bills approved and signed out of 2000 and there will be general agreement on about 85 percent of those," he said.

But there is a new balance of power in Helena, with Democrats controlling the governor's office and the state Senate.

Because of that, Keenan said, "There are 12 liberal senators running the Montana state Senate right now and they want to raise taxes. They want progressive taxation and more money in the state budget for education … Liberal and progressive is synonymous with expensive."

Keenan predicts the school funding debate will be driven by a powerful coalition of education unions and associations.

"You wait, the wish list will be insatiable," Keenan said, predicting that the debate over "quality" education will eventually concentrate on new or expanded programs and standards considered to be "educationally relevant."

"Everyone is forgetting about the word 'basic' in the constitution," he said. "And that is contrary to what's coming down the pike."

Once the redefined education system is put in place, he said, it will become a long-term fixed cost for state government. The state's general fund is expected to have a surplus of $190 million for the next biennium, but roughly $50 million must be set aside as a cash reserve.

"Isn't it interesting that the education lobby came before the House and Senate leadership last week and said they want $154 million" in additional funding? Keenan asked. As usual, he said, legislators have to also consider funding needs for a long list of other state agencies.

Democratic legislators from the Flathead expressed optimism that the school funding issue will be managed.

"I am optimistic," said freshman Sen. Dan Weinberg, D-Whitefish. "I've met with Brian Schweitzer and his cabinet, and I find them to be bright and optimistic. I think we're going to collectively do good things for Montana."

"We will probably be able to come up with some good ideas" in regard to education funding, said Rep. Tim Dowell, D-Kalispell, the senior Democrat from the Flathead.

How to pay for it will be difficult and probably require multiple sources of revenue, he said.

"I don't know really how we're going to do that. We'll have to wait and see how the session unfolds," he said. "I hope we won't increase taxes. It depends on what the price tag will be. We'll have to settle it somehow."

Dowell is proposing a bill that would establish an income tax aimed at revenue earned by large companies that transfer their earnings out of state.

Meanwhile, other Democrats have proposed bills aimed at providing property tax relief to Montana residents, along with a series of tax bills targeting video gambling, "big box" stores, and retail sales, to name just a few.

Rep. Brown, who is in her third term in the House, predicts the Democratic majority will increase spending substantially, along with taxes.

"Hold on to your pocketbook," she said. "I think there are plans in the works to spend five times what we have in reserve right now."

Regardless of what the Legislature does in terms of defining a quality education and paying for it, Brown said, a huge responsibility will fall on Gov.-elect Brian Schweitzer.

Schweitzer told a group of Kalispell business leaders last week that he won't "raise taxes for anything."

"Even though appropriations come from the House," Brown said, "the ultimate decision on all this will be made in the governor's office."

Reporter Jim Mann may be reached at 758-4407 or by e-mail at jmann@dailyinterlake.com