$100 million building fund urged for schools

A senator wants to set up a $100 million state building fund to help growing school districts — an offshoot of a county equalization proposal that he says may encourage more school districts to split.

Sen. Howard Stephenson, R-Draper, proposes the money come from a $27 million fund already set up to help property-tax-poor school districts build new schools; the rest would come from the statewide basic property tax levy that's been in place for years. It would not require a tax increase; rather, growth in the income tax would fill in the hole, according to the proposal. So, it would be a wash, Stephenson says.

Nothing is solid yet; Stephenson, who presented the ideas Wednesday in the Local Issues Task Force on Capitol Hill, wants to massage the concept in the coming months. He hopes to create a bill for what he hopes would be a special session called before November, when some residents in Granite and Jordan may be voting on whether to break away from those districts and form their own.

Feasibility studies conducted by cities examining a break-off show that if they split off, the remaining districts would struggle to fund growth on their own.

The building equalization fund would benefit growing school districts and supplement their efforts to raise money, through bonding, for instance.

Stephenson called it a win for everyone.

"People already are paying all of this money" in the basic levy, he said. "This is sorely needed. It's just not fair for growing districts to suffer the way they are.

"It's the right thing to do."

Incoming Park City Superintendent Ray Timothy worries whether other public school programs could be shortchanged in the event of an economic downturn or income tax cuts.

No one would lose money, but not everyone would benefit from the new fund, either.

For instance, 13 districts — Carbon, Emery, Garfield, Granite, Kane, Logan, Millard, Murray, North Sanpete, Ogden, Rich, Salt Lake and San Juan — are not growing and wouldn't get any money, according to an analysis given to the task force.

On the other hand, Alpine School District would get about one-fourth of the pot, more than triple the revenues the district puts into it. Davis would get nearly $15 million, nearly twice what it would put in. Tooele and Washington school districts also would get more than $10 million, more than they put in, too. But Jordan would get $13 million, nearly $2 million less than it puts in.