Judge hears school funding dispute

JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. -- Lawyers for Gov. Bob Holden and a group public school districts clashed Wednesday over whether the Missouri Constitution empowers a governor to reduce education spending when the state budget is out of balance.

The districts are seeking the immediate release of $190 million Holden, a Democrat, withheld from the $4.55 billion education budget in July. The governor's attorneys are asking Cole County Circuit Court Judge Richard Callahan to dismiss the case.

Callahan promised a quick decision, which could come as early as Friday. Whatever his ruling, the case will be appealed directly to the Missouri Supreme Court in hopes of a definitive interpretation of the governor's authority over state spending.

The dispute centers on the meaning of two constitutional provisions.

One precludes the governor from exercising his line-item veto power on budget bills to cut spending for public schools or debt repayment below levels approved by lawmakers. However, the next section authorizes him to reduce the expenditures of any state agency below appropriated amounts in the event of a revenue shortfall.

Michael Delaney, the districts' attorney, argued the sections should be read in unison, with the first limiting the governor's power under the second.

"We believe the governor has an obligation to make reductions everywhere and anywhere in the budget except for debt service and public education -- those are off limits," Delaney said. "That is the only sensible way to harmonize these provisions."

Assistant attorney general Paul Wilson said the constitution's plain language allows the governor to cut spending from where he sees fit and includes no exceptions.

"This court may not read in to it exceptions that are not there," Wilson said. "The actions of the governor in this case are no more or no less than the constitution requires."

Wilson also took a shot at the Republican-led legislature for creating the situation by approving more spending than the state had the money to cover.

"This is a lawsuit about what happens the General Assembly fails in its duties," Wilson said.

Both sides are seeking swift review by the Missouri Supreme Court, which has never established a firm precedent on the issue. The court dodged the matter in a similar lawsuit in 1992 brought by the Sikeston School District.

In that case, the court said Gov. John Ashcroft didn't actually withhold money from education but shifted it from all public schools to the Kansas City School District in compliance with a federal court order on desegregation.

Delaney said the current case isn't muddled by such side issues.

"There is no way for the issue that kept the Supreme Court from deciding this to resurrect itself," Delaney said.

The Liberty School District is leading the case and is joined by 13 other school system, mostly from the Kansas City area. The Fort Zumwalt and Francis Howell districts in St. Charles County joined the case Wednesday, becoming the first from the eastern side of the state to do so.

The case is State ex rel Liberty School District, et al., v. Gov. Bob Holden and Commissioner of Administration Jacquelyn White.

mpowers@semissourian.com

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