School Community

The trust fund, the main source of state money for public colleges and schools, is budgeted to spend $5.59 billion in this fiscal year, which started Oct. 1. The following year, spending will be capped at $5.48 billion, a reduction of 1.9 percent, Bentley said.

The spending plan that lawmakers passed earlier this year, to take effect in fiscal 2013, will cap spending increases from the trust fund in an upcoming year based on a formula that includes the average annual percentage increase in trust fund revenues over the previous 15 years.

The base funding level will be the trust fund’s recurring tax collections reported in fiscal 2011, increased or decreased by the average annual percentage change in trust fund tax collections over the previous 15 years.

”Our education budget is going to be OK,” Bentley said in a speech to the Montgomery Area Chamber of Commerce. But because of the budgeting bill, he said, ”We already can see a problem in the 2013 budget. It’s $108 million less than the 2012 budget.”

Bentley noted that he and legislators will have to wrestle with that reduction in next year’s regular session of the Legislature, which starts Feb. 7.

”This is something that we’re going to have to work off of when we get into the session, is to try to determine what are we going to do with that 2013 budget, which will be a little bit less,” he said.

Similar Posts:

• Illinois Governor Pat Quinn Outlines Plans for Education Funding in FY 2012 Budget
• $5.7 billion K-12 budget moves out of key committee, but debate over amount continues
• House Democrats file bills to dip into reserves for Oregon schools, health care and public safety
• Oregon special education funding drops; state may face federal sanctions
• Oregon college savings board cuts fees on all investment options