Gov. Spencer Cox is proposing spending approximately $200 million to give every public schoolteacher in the state a $6,000 raise in next year’s budget, something legislative leaders have signaled they will support. However, the Republican-dominated legislature is angling to make that pay hike contingent on the passage of legislation for school vouchers.
Typically, salary increases are discretionary spending and can differ across school districts. These would be paid directly to teachers, with $4,600 going to their paychecks while the remaining $1,400 would go toward benefits.
In behind-the-scenes negotiations, legislative leaders are hoping to use the pay raise to secure passage of school choice legislation, most likely some form of voucher program allowing students to use public education funds to pay for private schools, with amounts based on household income, sources tell The Tribune. The gamble is education stakeholders would think twice before mobilizing opposition to school choice legislation if it means sacrificing a pay raise.
The Legislature’s move is just months removed from a school voucher bill that failed to pass the Utah House after it narrowly passed out of committee. Even if it did give the Utah House and Senate, Utah Gov. Spencer Cox said he’d veto the measure. The bill would have allocated $36 million to fund the voucher program.
In 2007, Utah lawmakers passed a school voucher bill that was repealed the same year when opponents secured the signatures needed to put a referendum on the ballot. Over 62% of voters opted to ditch the school voucher bill.
This wouldn’t be the first time lawmakers used a financial threat to pressure educators. In 2021, lawmakers proposed giving teachers and staffers in Utah public schools a one-time bonus during the COVID pandemic. Legislative leaders threatened to withhold those bonuses from the Salt Lake City School District unless they returned to in-person classes. District leaders eventually cut a deal with lawmakers to secure teacher bonuses.
Cox’s education budget also includes a 5% increase in Utah’s per-pupil funding, which carries another $200 million price tag. In reality, Cox’s budget increases per-student funding by 1.6% as lawmakers are already required by law to cover any inflationary increases in the budget and enrollment growth, which accounts for the other 3.4% increase.
Funding education is always a huge part of Utah’s annual budget considerations, but this year Cox and lawmakers are planning to take a big swing at tax relief, proposing nearly $1 billion in cuts and other measures.
Earlier this year, lawmakers dropped Utah’s income tax rate from 4.95% to 4.85%. Cox proposes cutting the rate to 4.75%, which carries a price tag of approximately $190 million.
On top of the tax cut, Cox wants to spend $400 million to send taxpayers a one-time rebate check. Every taxpayer will get at least $100, but those at the higher end of the income spectrum will get much more, equal to about 6% of the taxes they paid in the previous year. Taxpayers with an income of more than $178,000 per year would receive a rebate of more than $1,300.
The tax cut mania is fueled by the state’s massive budget surpluses. Utah has an estimated $1.85 billion in extra ongoing and more than $2.8 billion in one-time revenue to spend next fiscal year.
Those tax cuts will come at the expense of potential funding for education. Most of Utah’s extra money is in the Income Tax Fund. Utah’s Constitution says all income taxes collected by the state must pay for public and higher education and some social programs. Tax cuts like those proposed by Cox must come out of that pot of cash.
from The Salt Lake Tribune https://ift.tt/KT4gukq
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