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Stage set for school aid vote Budget committee asks for $4.81 billion By PETER WONG SALEM -- The Legislature's budget committee set the stage Sunday for a test vote on the biggest item in the state budget, $4.81 billion for Oregon's public schools in the next two years. The committee voted 12-4, mostly along party lines, to send the amount proposed by the Legislature's Republican leaders to a vote of the House in the next few days. All four dissenters were Democrats, who along with Gov. John Kitzhaber have held out for $4.95 billion. Rep. Rob Patridge, R-Medford, said he expects negotiations between Republicans and Democrats to result in a higher figure. Kitzhaber has threatened to veto a school-aid budget he thinks is too low. Leaders hope to close the session, which was in its 183rd day today, by the end of this week or the start of next week. Patridge and Sen. Lenn Hannon, R-Ashland, voted with the majority Sunday, although both co-sponsored a bill early in the session for $5.1 billion that a coalition of school advocates sought. The legislative battles over the amount of aid to Oregon's 198 districts have intensified since 1990, when voter approval of a property tax limit gradually shifted the costs of schools from local property taxes to income taxes in the state budget. "Now, many years later, we are confronted with the actual choice -- fund schools or cut other budgets," Hannon said before Sunday's vote. "It is that simple. Nowhere did I find this session a measure to give school funding a high priority, other than the trough of the state general fund. The trough gets smaller and smaller, at the expense of other programs, so that it funds schools more and more." Schools rely on the state for 70 percent of their support today, compared to less than 30 percent at the start of the decade. Voters have rejected a state sales tax as an alternative to a property tax nine times, most recently in 1993. Kitzhaber has pledged to develop an alternative that he will unveil later this year and work to qualify for the general election ballot in November 2000. For Medford and most Southern Oregon school districts, the amount that Republican leaders propose would result in modest increases of about 3.5 percent in per-student spending next school year, which starts in September. Rep. Barbara Ross, D-Corvallis, said the state Legislature can afford to approve more to help districts educate students to the state's new academic standards. "It is a tragedy that in this time of wealth and adequate resources, we are not allocating money to our schools to allow them to do a good job," she said. But Rep. Leslie Lewis, R-Newberg, said higher amounts are likely to compel the state to increase taxes in the future to maintain the higher spending levels. Experts say that proposed spending commitments are likely to leave the 2001-03 state budget out of balance by as much as $500 million. "That would be a shame in a time when the economy is very good," said Lewis, House co-chairwoman of the budget panel. "This budget represents an increase of more than 10 percent. It fits in with our producing responsible and sustainable budgets." In related developments, Kitzhaber and legislative leaders have agreed on a priority of Senate President Brady Adams, R-Grants Pass, who wants "report cards" to be issued on the performance of individual schools. Senate Bill 1329, which cleared the budget panel Sunday, would direct the state superintendent of public instruction and Board of Education to devise a five-level system, ranging from "exceptional" to "unacceptable," and how schools have improved. Districts would have to prepare corrective plans for substandard schools. Adams dropped his proposal for letter grades for individual schools. Kitzhaber and leaders still were negotiating Senate Bill 1181, which as passed by the Senate would exempt districts from negotiating pay and benefits with teachers or other school workers if they offered unions packages equal to growth allowances determined by the state. It is a form of salary cap. Kitzhaber said he opposes changing the state's collective bargaining law but is open to the concept of growth allowances. Mail Tribune Copyright � The Mail Tribune 1999, Medford, Oregon USA