Pub. 5 2015-2016 Issue 2

14 38 dollars was inappropriate; rather, he felt the state should pay that full price. Sen. Hillyard reasoned that to give school districts these guarantees and then ask those same school districts to contribute a portion of those guarantees to charter schools was virtually impossible to justify. Moreover, Sens. Stephenson and Fillmore and Howard Headlee agreed to have the House amend SB 38 to include charter schools on the property tax notice, and revert to the two-year lag. Based on charter schools’ support of these amendments to SB 38, Smith and Withers agreed to back off their opposition to the bill, and Sen. Hillyard agreed to vote aye. A day later SB 38 passed the Senate. HOLDING AN AGREEMENT TOGETHER IN THE HOUSE Within 24 hours, the deal struck with Sen. Hillyard was dissolving as USBA representatives said Withers and Smith did not have authority to speak for the other school districts. Moreover, Sen. Stephenson had inserted a new element into SB 38; this new section would annually drive a substantial portion of the growth in public education funding into formulas that equalize funding between school districts. This new section created a remarkable amount of consternation among districts, even among districts the new section would benefit. Charter school advocates took no position on the merits of this new element, but UAPCS and Howard Headlee were adamant that the CFTF’s recommended funding increases for charter schools had to pass. Days and then weeks passed as we worked with House members and school district representatives to agree on an appropriate solution. Two other factors played critical roles during this tense time. Charter schools partnered with Utah Charter Advocates to marshal the energy of charter school parents. Thousands of parents from charter schools across the state peppered members of the House (and Senate) with emails supporting SB 38. Their support throughout this process fundamentally changed legislators’ perception of SB 38. The second factor was Governor Gary Herbert’s public support for charter funding equity. When asked in his February news conference about the Legislature’s debate over SB 38, Governor Herbert said, “No matter where you go to school, we ought to have adequate resources, based on a per student basis.” Gov. Herbert’s emphatic public support for charter funding equity forced all sides to confront the core of the issue: all children attending Utah’s public schools deserve equal public support, regardless of which school their parents chose. SPEAKER HUGHES STEPS UP As the House negotiations threatened to stalemate, House Speaker Greg Hughes and Majority Whip Francis Gibson grew frustrated. In their view, the point of the CFTF was to eliminate the animosity between charter schools and school districts; instead, the debate over SB 38 was more of the same. At Chris Bleak’s suggestion, Speaker Hughes invited district, charter school, State Board and legislative leaders to discuss SB 38, and come to an agreement on what to do. By the time the meeting started, nearly 30 representatives of the various groups sat or stood in the Speaker’s office. The Speaker and Rep. Gibson emphasized two things time and again. First, they wanted SB 38 to pass. Second, they wanted both sides comfortable with what was in SB 38. FROM DISCLOSURE TO A NEW PROPERTY TAX Since the latest draft of SB 38 required the state to pay the full cost of SB 38, the disagreement focused on what form the property tax notice would take. UAPCS noted that a property tax notice does not show how taxing entities spend their money; that is what a budget is for. A tax notice shows who imposes the tax that generates revenue. Nevertheless, UAPCS developed and shared draft language for the property tax notice describing the amount of school district property tax going to charter schools and the number of students from the district attending a charter school. Representative Kraig Powell and representatives of the school districts explained that they preferred a different method, one embodied in HB 193. They wanted to create an entirely new property tax to replace school districts’ 25% match in the LRF. Rep. Powell and others had recommended variations of this proposal for years, and the Legislature had repeatedly rejected it. Given the conciliatory tones all sides were striking in the debate over SB 38, Sen. Stephenson (president of the Utah Taxpayers Association!) and Representative Steve Eliason, SB 38’s House sponsor and co-chair of the CFTF, agreed to work with Rep. Powell, the Tax Commission, State Board staff and school district and charter school representatives to craft a proposal. Sen. Stephenson and Rep. Eliason focused on two concerns. First, they did not want this new “charter school levy” to translate into higher property tax bills. Second, and relatedly, they did not want school districts to blame charter schools or the Legislature for higher property taxes. As the group considered how to apply the intricacies of Utah’s successful, if complex property tax system to this narrow problem, a formula emerged to create a new property tax in CONTINUED FROM PAGE 13