He testified Sunday that some districts currently have reserves of 30 to 50 percent. (Really???) Employee unions, whose support Brown is counting on for his re-election and for passage of the rainy day ballot measure, are the chief advocates of the cap on reserves. Steve Henderson, a lobbyist for the California School Employees Association, testified Sunday that districts tend to follow the state’s lead. If the state puts money in a rainy day fund, districts will add to their reserves, even when not necessary, he said. A representative from the California Teachers Association, which also pushed for the reserve limit, did not testify on Sunday. On Friday, Josephine Lucey, president of the California School Boards Association, accused the teachers association of pushing for the cap so that more money would be freed up for pay raises. As EdSource has noted previously, it would be at least seven years before the state could begin diverting money into a Prop. 98 reserve, and even then strict preconditions would have to be met to trigger the cap on district reserves. Because the cap would be years away, supporters argued that legislators would have time to fix it. “No harm, no foul,” as Leno put it. But opponents threw back the same argument: If it’s not going to happen for years, “why the rush to enact it now?” asked Andrea Ball, a lobbyist for the California School Boards Association.
Posted on: Tue, 17 Jun 2014 17:36:54 +0000
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