SB 17-173

Senate Bill 17-173, also known as School Finance Mid-year Adjustments, aims to address financial discrepancies that occurred during the 2016 legislative session. The bill ensures that school districts receive the same state funding they were originally promised despite lower-than-expected local tax revenues and fewer students than anticipated. It also adjusts the "negative factor," which is a reduction in education funding, to better reflect current circumstances. This bill was signed into law after being passed by the legislature, meaning it will now be implemented as intended to support school districts financially.

Official Summary

Joint Budget Committee. The general assembly recognizes that the actual funded pupil count and the actual at-risk pupil count were less than anticipated during the 2016 legislative session. In addition, local property tax and specific ownership tax receipts were less than anticipated, reducing the local share of total program funding. The bill reflects the general assembly's intent to maintain the state share of school districts' total program funding at the level of the original appropriation during the 2016 legislative session, and to adjust total program funding, after application of the negative factor, to reflect a reduction in the negative factor. The bill appropriates $3,950 cash funds from the state education fund to align the hold-harmless full-day kindergarten funding with the change in total program funding. (Note: This summary applies to the reengrossed version of this bill as introduced in the second house.)

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