There are no fewer than eleven education-related bills making their way through the state legislature this session, each with its own twist as to how the state should adequately be funding public education to take some of the burden off the property tax rate.
Some of the bills have a focus on increasing the state’s adequacy aid – a formula that provides a contribution per pupil to school districts – while others address declining stabilization grants, which were created in 2011 to help offset the burden on property-poor municipalities that were facing a decrease in aid after another state aid source was eliminated.
“Anyone who campaigned this past year ran into very strong sentiments about property taxes,” said State Rep. Richard “Dick” Ames, a Jaffrey Democrat. “There’s a widespread feeling that too much is expected of the property tax, it’s an unfair burden.”
The state plans to increase its standard adequate education aid rate by about $70 per student on July 1 from the current $3,636.06 to $3,708.78 per pupil based on average daily membership.
The amount is hardly adequate to make up the shortfall most school districts face. The average cost to educate a student in the state of New Hampshire for the 2017-18 school year was $15,865.26, according to information on the NH Department of Education website.
“The property taxes we pay, most of it is for our schools,” said Rep. Marjorie Porter, a Hillsborough Democrat.
Porter also represents Antrim and Windsor.
Porter and Ames are the primary sponsors on one bill each, while each state rep. is a co-sponsor on two other bills.
Porter has put forth HB 678, which if passed would provide the legislature with “realistic figures” on how to provide an adequate education to students throughout the state.
The bill was formulated using statistics and information from the ConVal School District, Porter said. The bill states the current adequacy grants provided to school districts do not provide adequate funding.
The bill would increase the adequate education aid rate to $9,929 per pupil. This figure excludes the cost of transportation, according to the language of the bill.
The estimated impact of such a change would be $1.12 billion in fiscal year 2020.
“It has a high physical note, but that’s what property taxpayers are asked to raise year after year,” Porter said.
Ames is the primary sponsor of HB 686, which would be an interim option to address some of the funding issues.
The bill contains two parts, Ames said.
Part one would increase the interest and dividends tax to include capital gains and would provide an increased exemption for those 65 and older and married couples.
“In effect, it would primarily raise money from people with high incomes,” Ames said.
The money allocated, estimated to be $94.84 million, would be a revenue source to be used to fund education and to provide property tax relief.
“The bill is characterized as an interim provision with the notion that we need to figure out a long-term solution,” Ames said. “It carries the ball forward.”
The longterm solution could come from HB 551, a bill Ames co-sponsored, which would establish a school funding commission to study school funding.
“The additional relief from [House Bill 686] is probably not sufficient and the broader questions of sufficiency still needs to be addressed,” Ames said. “It is a question that needs to be examined and detailed by a mandated and funded commission.”
There are a variety of other bills proposed by other state representatives, some of which state reps. from the Monadnock Region co-sponsor.
Many of the bills aim to change the state’s adequate education aid rates, though each one has a different rate to change it to.
“It’s a recommendation that the state needs to do more, the big question is where are we going to find the money?” said Rep. Peter Leishman, a Peterborough Democrat.
Leishman, who co-sponsors two bills that propose different changes to the state’s adequate education aid rates, said the question all comes down to how much revenue the state has available to put towards educational funding.
“We have limited resources,” Leishman said. “We don’t really have a spending problem, we have a revenue problem.”
State senators are also proposing bills to address the need for more state funding for education.
State senator Jeanne Dietsch, a Peterborough Democrat, is the primary sponsor of SB 265, which aims to stop stabilization grants from decreasing in future years.
“The stabilization grants are the most painful point of all the education funding cuts,” Dietsch said. “They hit the communities least able to sustain further cuts. It’s been cut for years, and it has gone beyond what districts can sustain. We are trying to put a stop gap here.”
Stabilization grants are currently scheduled to be reduced by four percent of their 2012 value each fiscal year.
Dietsch’s bill proposes that the grants be brought back up to 92 percent of their 2012 value. They are currently at 88 percent.
Dietsch said the state needs to not only increase adequacy and other school funding aids, but they need to be doled out more fairly.
“This is a problem we must solve as a state,” Dietsch said. “The first step towards solving it is for all of us to commit to educating every child regardless of zip code.”
Nicholas Handy can be reached at 924-7172 ext. 235 or nhandy@ledgertranscript.com.