Page 6 - Superintendents Toolkit 2013

Budget/Cost Shift
Issue:
There appears to be a concerted public relations effort to tie funding for public education, public safety and
human services to the pension reform issue. The governor has used the pension issue as the reason he is
projecting deep cuts in the FY14 education budget, with some projections calling for GSA to be cut as much
as 20 percent or more. The FY13 education funding debate included one proposal by the governor to
eliminate Transportation funding.
Wrapped up in the pension reform issue is the state’s desire to incrementally shift its portion of the normal
pension costs to local school districts. The governor, Speaker Madigan and Senate President Cullerton all
have supported the cost shift. The governor has cited a snapshot in time of cash reserves in some school
districts to try and make his case that school districts could handle the cost shift.
(Continued from page 5)
1. Always try to describe the impact on
students in your district as a way to make
your points related to budget issues. Use the
budget spreadsheet listed on page 7 to
present data and to determine the numbers
in some of the talking points that follow.
2. The notion that school districts easily can
absorb more budget cuts or the state
shifting its portion of the pension costs to
local districts is just not true.
3. Districts already have had to absorb an 11
percent cut in General State Aid over the
past two school years and a 42 percent cut
in transportation reimbursement over the
past three school years.
4. Districts also have lost Corporate Personal
Property Replacement Tax (CPPRT) funding,
a total of more than $XX being lost in (your
district).
5. We already have cut everything we can cut
without reducing programs and educational
opportunities for our students.
6. Cutting teachers and staff also results in an
unemployment cost because so many
districts are making cuts. If laid off teachers
and staff cannot find jobs, districts must pay
more than half of their salaries in
unemployment, meaning you have to cut
twice as many people to achieve the savings
goal.
7. Consider these facts (if applicable):
 We have a deficit operating budget of
$XX this year, meaning we have had to
dip into our reserve funds to avoid
cutting programs. We already have cut
everything we can in order to maintain
programs and educational opportunities
for our students.
 The amount drained from our reserve
funds totaled more than $XX, or more
than XX percent of all of our reserve
funds.
 History shows that once a district begins
operating with a deficit budget, the
deficits tend to snowball.
(Continued on page 7)
Talking points: