RUSHED TO PASSAGE WITH FLAWS, SB 380 RESISTS FIXING

The echoes of Senate Bill 380, last year's major school legislation in Missouri, continue to reverberate across our state. Over the next year or so, there will be many more to follow.

Two weeks ago today, the Missouri Supreme Court heard arguments in the appeal of Cole County Circuit Court Judge Byron Kinder's decision in the school funding case. In that decision, Judge Kinder found the state's school foundation formula, by which state funds are distributed to local school districts, to be unconstitutional. Judge Kinder ordered the legislature to write a new formula. Without waiting for Missouri's highest court to rule on the pending appeal of that decision, Gov. Carnahan and legislative leaders pushed through SB 380, which provided for $310 million in higher taxes statewide, to go with approximately $50 million in local property taxes. All this was enacted without a vote of the people.

A decision is expected later this spring or summer from the high court. No matter what they decide on perhaps the most important school case in many years, important issues remain for the legislature to resolve. It's clear that many of these issues linger precisely because of the haste with which SB 380 was enacted in last year's session.

The sponsor of SB 380 was Sen. Harold Caskey, D.-Butler, chairman of the Senate Education Committee. This year, Sen. Caskey is sponsoring SB 676, or what is called the SB 380 "clean-up bill." It attempts to address several of the unresolved issues still lingering from SB 380.

Foremost among these is the famous issue of SB 380's "loophole" pertaining to lease-purchase agreements. Upon discovering the existence of a "loophole" large enough to siphon off up to $200 million of the $350 million in new funding, legislative leaders agreed with Sen. Caskey and the governor that closing it would be among the highest and most urgent priorities facing the General Assembly upon its return last January. Thus, a major feature of SB 380 is its attempt to "close" the "loophole".

The effort to close it doesn't seem to be going too well. The General Assembly adjourned for spring break last Thursday, at the session's halfway point, a day after Sen. Caskey pulled SB 676 off the floor, declaring it to be "dead for now." Sen. Caskey was forced to this pass by a fellow Democrat, Sen. Jerry Howard, D.-Dexter.

Sen. Howard brought the Senate to this juncture by offering a substitute amendment to SB 676. Basically, Howard's amendment provides that when local school districts set their tax rates for lease purchase, the district may use a portion of the levy up to the new statewide minimum levy ($2.75) for lease purchases. Local school superintendents throughout southeast Missouri are crying out for this flexibility, and we believe they are correct. Such local impudence does not sit well with the authors of SB 380. The authors of the new foundation formula intend for there to be no such flexibility.

Sen. Howard's approach collided with Sen. Caskey's on the Senate floor last week, and on an initial vote, Howard's position prevailed by a vote of 16-14. It was at this point that Caskey pulled the "clean-up bill" off the floor.

Matters of school finance and the proper construction of the foundation formula for distributing state aid are enormously complex. This was among the reasons we argued forcefully in this space that the whole process was being rushed last year and that unforeseen mistakes were likely. We take no pleasure in watching this prophecy validated, but would reiterate that something like the current mess was foreseeable.

With eight weeks remaining in the session when the legislature returns to business next Monday, there is time to resolve the impasse on SB 676. It would appear likely, though, that there are many other shoes to drop on the aftermath of SB 380. We'll be watching. Stay tuned.