AMENDMENT 7 ALLOWS SCHOOLS TO RAISE LEVIES

A proposed constitutional amendment on Tuesday's election ballot would allow local school boards to raise the minimum operating levy from $1.25 to $2 without voter approval.

Amendment 7 would also allow school districts to raise school levies to a maximum of $6 per $100 assessed valuation with approval of a simple majority of voters. Tax rates above that amount would require a two-thirds majority for passage.

Currently, any levy proposal above $3.75 requires two-thirds voter approval for passage.

"The bottom line is, it is going to help a lot of the poorer school districts survive," said Bob Buchanan, superintendent of the Sikeston School District.

Of the 539 school districts in the state, 179 have operating levies below $2, including Sikeston. The others in the area are Leopold, Meadow Heights and Woodland school districts in Bollinger County, and Chaffee and Kelly school districts in Scott County.

Buchanan said Sikeston's operating levy is $1.72. Coupled with a 58-cent debt-service levy, the total tax rate in the school system is $2.30.

If Amendment 7 passes, the Sikeston school board plans to increase the operating levy to $2, Buchanan said Thursday.

The move would mean increased local tax revenue of about $330,000 for the school district. The district's total budget is about $16 million.

The added revenue, Buchanan said, would help make up for the state funding withheld in the past year by Gov. John Ashcroft to help pay for court-ordered desegregation.

There's an added incentive to raise school levies to $2. A new state law requires a district to have a $2 minimum levy to receive any additional state foundation formula money, said Terry Stewart, assistant commissioner of the Missouri Department of Elementary and Secondary Education.

Under the law, a school district with less than a $2 levy, after the Proposition C tax rollback, could receive no more than the minimum-guarantee money it received on a per-pupil basis in 1990-91, Stewart said. The new law takes effect for the 1993-94 school year.

Supporters of the amendment said it would provide the 179 school districts with the means to begin paying their fair shares of the cost of education.

Stewart said the constitutional amendment would make it easier for school districts to raise their levies. "To some degree, that is the purpose of the change," he said Thursday.

He said it's difficult to pass any levy hike because of the two-thirds majority requirement.

In effect, said Stewart, a minority of voters can spell defeat for a school tax measure. "When you think about that, that is not what the democratic process is all about," said Stewart.

Amendment 7 would change that. "It's designed to let the will of the majority speak rather than the will of the minority," he said.

Buchanan agreed. "You can elect a president on a simple majority; you ought to be able to pass a school levy on a simple majority."

Most Missouri school districts have a tax rate well below $6, Stewart said. In the 1989-90 school year, only two small school districts in the northern part of the state had levies at $6 or above, he pointed out.

But he predicted the constitutional change won't lead to massive tax hikes because voter approval would still be required to raise the levy above the $2 level. "Whatever happens, it is still going to continue to happen with the vote of the people."

Stewart said there is widespread support for the measure among Missouri educators. The State Board of Education is backing the amendment, which needs a simple majority for passage.

Buchanan said, "The school districts in the state are grossly under funded, both at the state level and the local level.

"Most urban and suburban school districts have a much higher tax levy," he said. "The outstate districts traditionally have always had a very low tax levy."

Buchanan said any new foundation formula ordered by a court or drawn up by the legislature will require school districts to meet minimum levy requirements in order to get additional state funding.

"Those districts with a low local effort will be penalized," he said.

Buchanan said additional funding is needed in the Sikeston schools to recruit and retain teachers.

Even with passage of Amendment 7, passing tax levies won't be easy, he said. "But it's going to make each vote count the same, and that's the way it should be."

Buchanan said there has been little active campaigning by local educators in Missouri because the measure was approved by lawmakers at the end of the legislative session and wasn't acted upon by the governor until after schools were out for the summer.