State Revenue Drought Continues

   The state revenue drought continues on, and there is no end in sight. State agencies were asked last week to envision what a 14.5% reduction in budgets would look like - and report back to the legislature the results of these cuts. Needless to say, the resulting scenarios are not pretty. Our public schools have suffered cut, after cut, after cut, over the past several years - and the education cuts in 2017 have accelerated beyond belief. We first suffered state budget reductions in January - $30,000, then in February - $57,000, and as of March 15 - $59,398, for a grand total of $146,398 in Blanchard Public Schools. We must go back and re-balance our budget, once again... and again... and again. We must continue to reduce expected revenue and reduce expenditures. There is no end in sight for cutting teaching and support staff, reducing administrative costs, reducing operational expenditures, and cutting student resources for our public schools. The only problem for schools is that we are already cut to the bone - there is no fat left to cut! Corporate legislators are fond of saying that schools can reduce administrative costs (overhead) to balance school budgets by consolidating administrative services - but the facts belie those assertions. Administrative costs make up only about 3% of school expenditures, while teacher salaries make up about 80%. The other 17% goes to operational costs such as support salaries, utility costs, fuel costs, maintenance costs and building repairs, and student services. Legislators are also fond of saying that schools receive revenue other than state appropriated funds, so "have more money than they can spend".
   The facts concerning "other revenue" also belie legislator statements. The fact of the matter is that most of the "other revenue" is chargeable against state appropriations. In other words, all school funding is a "zero-sum" game in which most local and county revenue is reduced from state aid as it works its way through the formula. Dedicated revenue from the County 4-mil, gross production tax, rural electric co-op, school land leases, and motor vehicle collections is subtracted from state appropriated collections, so there is no over-all revenue difference in how much schools ultimately receive. Whether a school receives one million dollars in dedicated revenue or one dollar, the final state aid is always the same, barring no state appropriation reductions. We have in fact received multiple appropriation reductions this year alone. In addition, the dedicated revenue schools receive is also drastically down this year, as gross production is down 8% from one year ago, motor vehicle collections - down 6.86%, school land leases - down 7.19%, and the REC - down 2.07%. For Blanchard Public Schools the reductions amount to $34,980 in gross production, $1607 in REC, $29,716 in motor vehicle collections, and $14,793 in school land, a grand total of $81,096 in dedicated revenue losses... so far. Not only have schools been cut in state aid, but they've also lost dedicated revenue - the perfect storm for choking our public schools. Many public school supporters believe this funding catastrophe did not happen by bad luck alone - but has been orchestrated by those who would like nothing more than to see our public schools destroyed. Many also say this budget fiasco could have been averted, had our legislators known simple mathematics. The simple arithmetic is that legislators cannot spend more than they receive - in other words, "the budgeting end game must always be expenditures equal revenues.
   The Oklahoma Council of Public Affairs (OCPA), a conservative think tank, has published a list of recommendations for state legislators in order to help balance the state budget and provide teacher pay increases. In the past, I've often disagreed with OCPA recommendations concerning our public schools, such as "legislative choice for recipients of public school funding". I wholeheartedly agree, however, with the OCPA recommendations for balancing our state budget. The list includes common sense reductions in frivolous legislative spending such as repealing sales tax exemptions for tickets to NBA and NHL games and repealing sales tax exemptions on wind turbine sales. The total list of recommendations would save approximately $413 million and could provide a $5000 pay increase to every teacher in the state. The only cost saving measure I would add to the OCPA list would be "consolidation and reduction of state agencies" which would also help fill the state budget hole of almost $900 million. As many Oklahoma voters know by now, state lawmakers are big spenders but not big savers, so none of these cost saving measures are likely to be adopted. The bottom line for teacher pay raises and balancing the state budget for state legislators is probably more state spending with no more revenue. Fuzzy math is no longer in vogue for state legislators, but NO MATH is the new math for our government.