Legislators are closing in on a way to help some school districts that stand to lose millions of dollars in transportation funds.
A proposal in a school debt service bill essentially stalls for three years a law that requires schools to pay their debts before spending money on buses, building repairs or other big-ticket items.
The delay only helps districts that will lose at least 10 percent of their transportation funds due to the new “protected levy” law – or fewer than 100 of the state’s 294 districts. Schools losing less than that amount must absorb the cuts or dip into operating funds – which pay for salaries for teachers and administrators – for transportation or other needs.
The 10 percent benchmark is seen as a victory by some. An earlier version of the bill set the cutoff at 20 percent.
“We’ll be able to help a lot more schools,” said Sen. Randy Head, R-Logansport, who helped negotiate the new limit. Under the protected levy, Logansport Community Schools stand to lose more than 17 percent of the funds used to keep their buses running – almost $200,000.
Legislators and school officials have spent weeks trying to devise a plan to relieve school districts that have already lost millions from their transportation and capital funds due to property tax caps approved in 2010. Losses vary by district, but overall the caps have cost schools more than $642 million over the past three years.
Current law allows school corporations to spread such losses over several funds, including those for debt service, school pension debt, capital projects, transportation and bus replacement. But the protected levy law, which passed in 2012 and takes effect this July, removes that flexibility. It requires districts to apply property tax revenues to debt payments before other expenses.
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