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Education Funding Constitutional Amendment
CACR 12, currently containing language that gives the state the "full power and authority" to determine "amounts of state funding...as it may judge", clearly puts current state funding levels at risk and allows the state to break its promise of a state commitment to public education for all children. The language seeks to vacate the spirit and intent of the Claremont and Londonderry lawsuits, which NHSBA resolutions support. At risk are millions of dollars in state support to local communities. The first meeting of the Committee of Conference is scheduled for Tuesday, May 22 at 10 am. House conferees (Reps L.Ober, Hess, Balboni, and Renzullo with Foose as alternate), and Senate conferees (Senators Bradley, D'Allesandro, and Stiles), will then attempt to reach a compromise on the proposed language.
ACTION ITEM
Please contact your local representatives and senator to express your opposition to this proposal. NHSBA has a long history of opposing constitutional amendments that seek to break the promise of a state commitment to public education for all children everywhere. The resolution states, "NHSBA opposes any constitutional amendment that vacates the spirit and intent of the Claremont and Londonderry lawsuits and attempts in any way to limit or redirect funding in a manner that is contrary to the New Hampshire Supreme Court's ruling and present interpretation of the New Hampshire Constitution." The proposed change diminishes the current "fundamental right" to an education, and removes the obligation to ALL public school students. Reductions in state aid to local districts is the obvious purpose of the proposed amendment. Significantly reducing the amount of state aid will place even more strain on the local property tax, if those lost revenues are indeed replaced. If not replaced but followed by budget cuts, losses and reductions to educational programs will lead to fewer educational opportunities for our youth.
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"Spiking Fee/Assessment" for All
SB 228 has been recommended for amendment by the House Special Committee on Pension Reform. As passed by the Senate and supported by NHSBA, the bill repealed the provisions that establish "penalty assessment fees" for 'excess benefits' paid by employers (end-of-career cash-outs). The Committee's amendment and recommendation to the full House next week changes the 'repeal' to a new formula for determining the penalty assessment. Gone is the "125% provision", with penalties assessed only when end-of-career severance benefits increase an employee's pension benefit by more than 25% compared to a calculated pension benefit based only on "base pay". The new language will assess a fee for any payment in the last 12 months of employment for a) unused sick leave; (b) unused vacation leave; (c) severance pay; (d) cash retirement incentives; and (e) any similar end-of-service payment. Any such payment increases the employee's pension benefit, since by statute those payments are included in the definition of earnable compensation. Thus ANY contract with such payment provisions will cause a penalty assessment for the school district. As adopted by the Committee, the bill requires such penalty assessments to begin with persons retiring on or after July 1, 2013. However, several representatives indicated their intention to introduce a floor amendment in the House to make the bill apply to persons retiring this coming year, after July 1, 2012.
ACTION ITEM
Please contact your local representatives voicing your opposition to this action and support of the Senate version. As passed by the Senate, SB 228 repeals the flawed pension spiking provision scheduled to take effect on July 1, 2012. Retirement reform measures adopted last year impacting non-vested and new employees will, over time, address the issues concerning pension "spiking", and school boards have already begun implementing severance package limitations in their negotiated contracts. The committee proposal changes the rules that were originally provided to public employers, now assessing a penalty even on those contracts that were changed to reflect the intent of the legislature when it first identified 'spiking' as a problem. The new proposal simply seeks to continue the downshift of costs onto local budgets for a problem created by the legislature when it first defined "earnable compensation", specifically including all such end-of-career payments.
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Education Tax Credits (Vouchers): SB 372 and HB 1607
Both bills continue to move forward, but in slightly different form. There have been MANY amendments. After review by the Senate Education Committee and then adopted by the full Senate on a 17-7 vote, HB 1607 was referred to Senate Finance, where another amendment has been recommended with another Senate vote next week. SB 372 was amended by the House Ways and Means Committee, and is scheduled for a House vote next week. Given minor differences between the two versions, it is anticipated the bill will go to a Committee of Conference where agreement will be reached on a final bill. These tax credits result in less revenue for the state General Fund while the state continues to claim a lack of resources to meet current obligations (Cat Aid, Voc T&T, Retirement, etc. are all underfunded). In addition, both bills "recapture" state adequacy aid to locals, thus increasing the local property tax. Therefore the bills rely on local funds to promote a state initiative/policy.
ACTION ITEM
Please contact your local legislators and share your opposition to these bills. The legislature should not be diverting money from the state and local districts for private school purposes. Local districts will see little or no reduction in their expenses and fixed costs, yet will still be required to forfeit money in lost adequacy funds. It is hard to understand why the legislature would consider a proposal to reduce revenues while not currently paying the bills it owes. Rather than diverting scarce tax dollars away from our public school classrooms, and arguably for unconstitutional purposes by paying tuition at parochial schools, NHSBA urges the legislature to support improvements in our public schools and meet current funding obligations and promises.
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Special Education and Department of Education Rules
HB 1360 was amended by the Senate Education Committee and is scheduled for a vote in the Senate next week. NHSBA supports the amendment, which requires the state board of education to issue a report of all rules that exceed state or federal minimum requirements, provide the reasons for exceeding those requirements, and distribute the report to the legislature and all school districts. Please contact your local senator to express your support for the proposed amendment. The language represents our best opportunity yet to address NHSBA's priority resolutions and specific call to amend NH law so that only the state legislature, not the state board of education via rulemaking or any other process, decides when it is appropriate for state law to exceed federal law.
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Retirement and Pension Benefits
SB 229 as adopted by the Senate creates a Study Commission on the potential of replacing the current Defined Benefit Plan with a Defined Contribution Plan. As highlighted in previous Bulletins, there are significant financial implications associated with the transition. The House Special Committee on Public Pension Reform is recommending an amendment that changes the structure and composition of the study committee and provides more specificity in the duties and charge of the committee, which must study and evaluate defined contributions plans for new state employees hired after November 1, 2013. Provisions for school districts and towns to elect to join and participate in the system are included. The committee will issue Requests for Proposals to work with possible vendors and also propose legislation to implement a selected plan. The committee's findings, recommendations and report are all due by November 1, 2012. The vendor to implement the proposal shall be selected no later than August 2013, with November 2013 implementation of the new plan. As an incentive for serious action, the bill includes a Defined Benefit Plan for state employees that will go into effect absent any new legislative action, either replacing or repealing the 'fall back' plan. The bill is scheduled for a House vote next week.
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Authorizing the Retention of Funds by a School District
SB 373 was recommended OTP/A with a friendly amendment, extending the same provisions to city school departments. In large part due to the support and work of Senator Forsythe, the bill now goes to the full House with a nearly unanimous (14-1) recommendation for adoption.
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Other Issues
SB 401 received an OTP/A recommendation for House consideration next week. It changes ADMA data for determining Adequacy Grants to be counts from the school year immediately preceding the year in which aid is received, allowing the commissioner to make adjustments in grant payments necessitated by variations in the data. The grant may not vary by more than 5 percent of the district's estimated grant amount provided in November of the prior year. The amendment gives validity to local estimates of final pupil counts and estimated aid when tax rates are set by DRA.
HB 1403 received an ITL for Senate consideration next week. The bill attempts to infringe on local control by limiting choices of curriculum and instruction methodology in meeting state minimum standards (International Baccalaureate).
SB 300 received an OTP/A recommendation for House consideration next week. The bill places more specific responsibilities on local districts and charter schools to determine the delivery of special education services for students at charter schools, but the amendment no longer specifies that the charter school shall be the Least Restrictive Environment.
Please share your legislative concerns with your local legislators.
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