This Fiscal Note is not an official copy and should not be quoted or cited.
Fiscal Note - SB 0941 - State Sch. Aid Formula/Taxes & Revenue for St. Louis Schools
L.R. NO. 3527-01
BILL NO. SB 941
SUBJECT: Education: School Aid Formula
TYPE: Original
DATE: March 25, 1996
FISCAL SUMMARY
ESTIMATED NET EFFECT ON STATE FUNDS
FUND AFFECTED FY 1997 FY 1998 FY 1999
General Revenue ($1,052,850,203 to ($1,084,435,709 to ($1,116,968,780 to
$1,052,305,749) $1,083,314,134) $1,115,813,558)
Unitary District
Sales Tax $0 $0 $0
Total Estimated
Net Effect on All ($1,052,850,203 to ($1,084,435,709 to ($1,116,968,780 to
State Funds $1,052,305,749) $1,083,314,134) $1,115,813,558)
ESTIMATED NET EFFECT ON FEDERAL FUNDS
FUND AFFECTED FY 1997 FY 1998 FY 1999
None $0 $0 $0
Total Estimated
Net Effect on All
Federal Funds $0 $0 $0
ESTIMATED NET EFFECT ON LOCAL FUNDS
FUND AFFECTED FY 1997 FY 1998 FY 1999
Local Government $1,052,850,203 to $1,084,435,709 to $1,116,968,780 to
$1,220,002,233 $1,428,768,892 $1,471,631,958
FISCAL ANALYSIS
ASSUMPTION
Officials from the Office of State Courts Administrator, Attorney General's
Office, State Treasurer's Office, Office of Administration, Gaming
Commission, Department of Social Services and Board of Election Commissioners
(St. Louis City) assume the proposal would have no fiscal impact on them.
Officials from the Department of Revenue (DOR) assume that if the taxes that
would be required by DOR would be limited to those imposed on a citywide or
countywide basis, there would be minimal administrative impact to the
department. If the department would be required to collect any tax in a
jurisdiction that would not have boundaries coterminous with city or county
boundaries (like a school district), very large administrative costs would be
incurred. DOR assumes the language in the proposal would not require taxes
to be collected by the department and that only taxes imposed in all areas of
the city of St. Louis and St. Louis County would be collected by the
department. One percent of the sales taxes collected by DOR on behalf of St.
Louis City and/or St. Louis County would be retained in the General Revenue
Fund.
Officials from the Department of Elementary and Secondary Education (DESE)
assume the proposal would have no administrative fiscal impact on the
department.
DESE assumes the legislation would increase the cost to fully fund the
foundation formula by about $1 billion:
Line 14 would change (removal of .2 factor and addition of AFDC) and
would increase full funding cost by about $890 million. {346,088 *
(112,581/100) * 2.75 = $1,071,480,661 less 293,479 * .2 x (112,581/100)
* 2.75 = ($181,720,876)} = $889,759,785.
Changing the definition of eligible pupils would increase the full
funding cost by about $138 million (increase eligible pupils from
828,000 to 866,000).
Removing fines and forfeitures as a deduction would increase the full
funding cost by $20 million.
Total cost to fully fund the formula would be:
$ 890 million
+ 138 million
+ 20 million
$1.048 billion
In addition, the changes to transportation would increase the cost to fully
fund the transportation formula as follows:
St. Louis City increase
1) regular non-integrated $ 0
2) magnet/regular integrated 1,435,901
3) special education 2,220,871
4) other court ordered 360,183
$4,016,955
Kansas City increase:
1) regular non-integrated $ 0
2) magnet/regular integrated 0
3) special education 833,248
4) other court ordered 0
$ 833,248
DESE assumes schools would receive increased state aid if the foundation
formula and transportation formula would be fully funded.
Officials from the St. Louis Public Schools assume the proposed legislation
would have a substantial positive impact on the district. The change in the
eligible pupil definition would increase revenue by approximately $6.8
million. The change to line 14, related to free and reduced lunch and aid to
dependent children recipients would yield a minimum of $89 million. The
change in state transportation aid would increase funding by $5.2 million.
Therefore, in total, they assume the proposal would yield approximately $101
million for the district. The Oversight Division assumes the St. Louis
Public Schools' additional foundation formula revenue is already included in
DESE's total estimate for all districts. St. Louis Public Schools' officials
could not estimate the additional revenue for the district resulting from
authorizing additional tax levies without additional information.
Officials from the City of St. Louis assume the proposal would have no fiscal
impact on them. They state that tax revenues for fiscal year 1995 were as
follows:
Earnings Tax: 100 million
Gaming Tax: 6.5 million
Tourism Tax: 8 million (includes hotel and restaurant taxes)
Based on the fiscal year ended June 30, 1995 Missouri Department of Revenue
Comprehensive Annual Financial Report, St. Louis City sales tax distributed
was $92,523,644, and use tax distributed was $5,222,405. These amounts
exclude DOR's one percent cost of collection. Therefore, the Oversight
Division determined the amounts prior to DOR's cost of collection (by
dividing by .99), assuming DOR would not be responsible for collecting taxes
assessed by a board of education. The Oversight Division assumes total taxes
that could be levied by a board of education under the proposal could be
$213.5 million ($100 earnings + $6.5 gaming + $8 tourism + $94 sales + $5 use
= $213.5 million). The Oversight Division has ranged these revenues from
zero in the fiscal impact section, since they would have to be voter approved
in order to be implemented. A 3% inflation factor was used, starting with FY
96, since the tax revenues were based on FY 95. For FY 97, only six months
are included in the fiscal impact, assuming the first election would be held
in November, 1996, and the tax would be effective January, 1997.
Because the public mass transit sales tax is .5% for St. Louis City and St.
Louis County, the Oversight Division has used the FY 95 public mass transit
sales tax distributions from the fiscal year ended June 30, 1995 Missouri
Department of Revenue Comprehensive Annual Financial Report to estimate the
fiscal impact of the county or city imposing a one-half of one percent
unitary district sales tax ($80,072,019-county and $21,541,621-city). The
amounts from the report exclude DOR's one percent cost of collection. The
Oversight Division assumes DOR's one percent cost of collection would have
approximated $808,808 for the county taxes {($80,072,019/.99)-$80,072,019}
and $217,592 for the city taxes {($21,541,621/.99)-$21,541,621} for FY 95.
A 3% inflation factor was used, starting with FY 96, since the tax revenues
were based on FY 95. For FY 97, only six months are included in the fiscal
impact, assuming the first election would be held in November, 1996, and the
tax would be effective January, 1997.
FISCAL IMPACT - State Government FY 1997 FY 1998 FY 1999
GENERAL REVENUE FUND
Income-Department of Revenue
One percent of Unitary District Sales Tax-
St. Louis County and City $0 to $0 to $0 to
$544,454 $1,121,575 $1,155,222
Cost-Department of Elementary and Secondary
Education
Fully Funded Foundation
Formula ($1,052,850,203)($1,084,435,709) ($1,116,968,780)
ESTIMATED NET EFFECT ON
GENERAL REVENUE FUND ($1,052,850,203 ($1,084,435,709 ($1,116,968,780
to to to
$1,052,305,749) $1,083,314,134) $1,115,813,558)
UNITARY DISTRICT SALES TAX FUND
Income-Department of Revenue
Unitary District Sales Tax $0 to $0 to $0 to
$53,900,955 $111,035,968 $114,367,047
Cost-Department of Revenue
Distribution of Unitary District
Sales Tax to St. Louis County ($0 to ($0 to ($0 to
$42,474,202) $87,496,857) $90,121,763)
Distribution of Unitary District
Sales Tax to St. Louis City ($0 to ($0 to ($0 to
$11,426,753) $23,539,111) $24,245,284)
ESTIMATED NET EFFECT ON UNITARY
DISTRICT SALES TAX FUND $0 $0 $0
FISCAL IMPACT - Local Government FY 1997 FY 1998 FY 1999
Income-School Districts
Fully Funded Foundation
Formula $1,052,850,203 $1,084,435,709 $1,116,968,780
Additional Taxes (Sales, Use,
Earnings, Gaming, Tourism) $0 to $0 to $0 to
$113,251,075 $233,297,215 $240,296,131
Unitary District Sales Tax-County $0 to $0 to $0 to
$42,474,202 $87,496,857 $90,121,763
Unitary District Sales Tax-City $0 to $0 to $0 to
$11,426,753 $23,539,111 $24,245,284
ESTIMATED NET EFFECT ON
SCHOOL DISTRICTS $1,052,850,203 $1,084,435,709 $1,116,968,780
to to to
$1,220,002,233 $1,428,768,892 $1,471,631,958
Income-St. Louis County
Unitary District Sales Tax $0 to $0 to $0 to
$42,474,202 $87,496,857 $90,121,763
Cost-St. Louis County
Distribution to School Districts ($0 to ($0 to ($0 to
$42,474,202) $87,496,857) $90,121,763)
ESTIMATED NET EFFECT ON
ST. LOUIS COUNTY $0 $0 $0
Income-St. Louis City
Unitary District Sales Tax $0 to $0 to $0 to
$11,426,753 $23,539,111 $24,245,284
Cost-St. Louis City
Distribution to School Districts ($0 to ($0 to ($0 to
$11,426,753) $23,539,111) $24,245,284)
ESTIMATED NET EFFECT ON
ST. LOUIS CITY $0 $0 $0
DESCRIPTION
The proposal would change the definition of "eligible pupils" to be the
membership of the district. The proposal would define "qualified aid to
dependent children recipients" as resident children five years of age or
older and under eighteen years of age who were enrolled in the public schools
the previous September and for whom aid to dependent children was allowed as
certified by the Division of Family Services.
The proposal would remove as a deduction from the district entitlement in the
foundation formula fines, forfeitures and escheats.
The proposal would change the categorical add-on of 20% for free and reduced
eligible pupil count and instead add the free and reduced count to fifty
percent of the number of qualified aid to dependent children recipients of
the district.
The proposal would divide the transportation operations of metropolitan
school districts into four separate portions for the purposes of calculating
state transportation aid. The four portions would be regular non-integrated,
magnet and regular integrated, special education, and any other court ordered
transportation.
The proposal would allow the board of education of any metropolitan school
district to levy any tax which a city not within a county is authorized to
levy for general school purposes (sales, use, earnings, gaming, tourism,
etc.) which would be subject to a vote.
The governing body of any city not within a county and any county of the
first class having a charter form of government with a population over nine
hundred thousand could propose a unitary district sales tax of up to one-half
of one percent for submission to the voters. All sales taxes collected by
the Director of Revenue on behalf of any city or county, less one percent of
the cost of collection, would be deposited with the State Treasurer in the
Unitary District Sales Tax Trust Fund. The revenues derived from any unitary
district sales tax would be disbursed to school districts declared unitary.
"Declared Unitary" would mean that a court order approving settlement of a
desegregation lawsuit or a final judicial decree declaring the school
district involved in the litigation is free of control or supervision by the
court, and the district is under the control of the district's board of
education. The revenues derived under the unitary district sales tax would
be used only for maintaining and operating programs that remain in effect
which were previously mandated by the desegregation remedy. If a city or
county would abolish the tax, they would notify the Director of Revenue at
least ninety days prior to the effective date of the repeal and the Director
of Revenue could order retention in the trust fund for one year of two
percent of the amount collected of notice to cover refunds or overpayments
and redeem dishonored checks and drafts deposited to the accounts. After one
year, the balance would be remitted to the city or county, and the account
would be closed.
This legislation is not federally mandated, would not duplicate any other
program and would not require additional capital improvements or rental
space.
SOURCES OF INFORMATION
Department of Elementary and Secondary Education
Department of Social Services
Office of Administration
State Treasurer's Office
Office of State Courts Administrator
Attorney General's Office
Gaming Commission
Department of Revenue
St. Louis Public Schools
Board of Election of Commissioners (St. Louis City)
City of St. Louis