Public schools getting shorted

Utah schools are getting a smaller share of the money the Utah Constitution sets aside for education, a legislative budget analysis shows.

They also got a fraction of the $400 million legislators had to divide up in the 2005 session in new ongoing and one-time money from the income tax, earmarked for education. The rest went to the state's colleges and universities.

Colleges are a legitimate place to invest that money under a 1996 constitutional amendment. And budget committee leaders say it's right to weigh all the state's needs, independent of which pot pays for them.

"I will tell you very candidly that when we make our decisions, we don't even look at the balance of Uniform School Funds versus general funds," said Rep. Ron Bigelow, R-West Valley and co-chairman of the Executive Appropriations Subcommittee. "We simply say, where are the needs?"

But some question whether that's the right ethic for a state spending the least per public school child in the country.

"Higher education needs (money) too . . . but (public schools) were not really taken care of as they should have been," said retired schoolteacher Rep. Lou Shurtliff, D-Ogden and member of the Higher Education Appropria- tions Subcommittee, who requested the budget data from the Legislative Fiscal Analyst's Office. "We're balancing the budget on the back of our schools."

The Utah Constitution once dedicated all income tax revenues to elementary through high schools.

In 1996, Utah voters amended the constitution to share that money with colleges and universities — which get money from the general fund, primarily made of sales tax revenues.

The amendment boils down to equalizing the two checkbooks — the Uniform School Fund and the general fund — that don't always grow at the same pace as the programs they pay for, Bigelow said.

For a time, schools needed general fund money to balance their budgets, Deputy Legislative Fiscal Analyst Mike Kjar said. From 1984 to 1995, public schools received $295 million in general fund cash.

Since 1996, public schools' share of the income tax has waxed and waned. In fiscal 2004, they got 93 percent, Kjar said. In fiscal 2006, they'll get 87 percent of the $2.2 billion largesse; 86 percent if one doesn't count the $24 million Rainy Day Fund investment.