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Subcommittee backs $4.8 billion for schools Final number likely to rise, Patridge says By PETER WONG SALEM -- Six months after the Oregon Legislature opened its 1999 session, a legislative budget panel finally voted Saturday to set a two-year, $4.81-billion budget for state aid to public schools. The amount, proposed by leaders of the Legislature's Republican majorities, cleared the education budget subcommittee by a 7-5 vote along party lines. By the same vote, the subcommittee defeated an alternative of $4.95 billion favored by Democrats and Gov. John Kitzhaber. To ensure the school-aid budget's passage, three top Senate Republicans sat in as substitutes for absent members and voted. "This action certainly is an indication that we are prepared to move budgets forward," Senate President Brady Adams, R-Grants Pass, said afterward. "This is the biggest one we have to work with. But I think at this point, nothing is locked absolutely in concrete. We are in discussions with the governor and we will continue to be talking with him." Kitzhaber threatened last week to veto budgets he considers inadequate and summon legislators back for a special session. The school-aid budget moves today to the full budget committee, which has two Southern Oregon members, Sen. Lenn Hannon, R-Ashland, and Rep. Rob Patridge, R-Medford. Neither sits on its education subcommittee. Patridge said Saturday he thinks the final number will be more. If the full committee clears it, the school-aid budget would go to the House later this week. Leaders originally proposed $4.73 billion in aid, but apparently were unable to muster the votes to pass it through the House. Even if it clears both houses this week and is signed by the governor, the school-aid budget would be the latest in years. Only in 1981, when the session ended in August, was it approved later. In its longest session six years ago, the Legislature approved a first-year school-aid budget in the spring. The session was in its 182nd day today, making it the fourth longest in state history. Aid to Oregon's 198 districts is the largest item in the two-year, $11 billion state budget. As a result of several property tax limits that Oregon voters have approved this decade, schools rely on the state for 70 percent of their budgets, up from 33 percent. If the amount remains at $4.81 billion, Medford and most Southern Oregon districts will gain only modestly in per-student spending in the school year that starts in September. Medford, Oregon's seventh-largest district, would move up 3.6 percent in projected per-student spending from $4,743 to $4,916. Superintendent Steve Wisely said that at that level, Medford schools would not be forced to make cuts. But he said they also would be unable to buy the new textbooks and other materials they need to help students attain the state's new academic standards. "There will be no reduction of class size nor support staff to deal with potential violent students," he wrote in a memo. But conservatives may fall off if the ultimate number is much more than what was approved Saturday. "I am OK with this figure," said Rep. Carl Wilson, R-Grants Pass, a budget subcommittee member. "But this whole discussion really is about taxes and living within the revenue we have. "We also have problems with seniors, young people and drug rehabilitation -- and I have been hearing from all those constituencies for six solid months. I hope this figure is adequate. But we do have to make do with it, because we have a limited amount of resources. If we go much beyond this, we are talking about a tax increase." Legislators also are talking about allowing voters to approve additional property taxes to boost per-student spending. Critics say such a move could undo the progress that has been made to equalize spending among districts since 1991, when the state budget assumed a greater share and property taxes a lesser share of school operating costs. Mail Tribune Copyright � The Mail Tribune 1999, Medford, Oregon USA