Schools districts use carryover reserves to spend more this year
Analysis of K-12 spending projections for FY 2010 shows that total spending is up about $320 million over last year, with about $220 million of the increase in current operating costs and the rest is in Capital and Debt Service. 174 districts are predicting higher operating expenditures this year; 77 districts have reductions of less than 5% and 42 districts have reductions greater than 5%.
Total revenue is $5.616 billion or just $50 million less than last year. Districts spent down their unencumbered carryover reserves by $370 million to offset the revenue decline and fund the $320 million spending increase.
Taxpayers will naturally wonder how spending could be higher after all the budget cuts. Kansas Policy Institute's review of district budgets found that schools planned to spend $612 million more this year ($297 million in operating costs and $315 million in Capital and Debt Service). They therefore 'cut' $77 million from their operating budgets and $215 million from their capital and debt service budgets...but still spent more than last year.
Kansas Legislative Research Division collected school spending and ending fund balance projections from each school district earlier this month. Dale Dennis and Sara Barnes at KSDE confirmed that the way KPI calculated spending and reconciled the increase against declining fund balances and the revenue change is accurate.
The statewide summary and individual district files can be found on the KLRD web site. A summary analysis of district spending and ending balances and analysis of spending by district is available in the Data Warehouse on Kansas Policy Institute web site.
Districts' proven ability and willingness to use their carryover funds is good news for taxpayers and teachers. As things stand today in the state budget debate, it appears the worst that might occur is that schools have to offset half of their decline in federal stimulus dollars, as the House budget proposes to replace $85 million. Districts say they will still have $515 million of carryover money remaining in funds that can either be spent down as they did this year or transferred with legislative authority, giving them the ability to offset their ARRA loss and without making cuts.
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