Tooele County School District officials are supporting a Senate bill that may help equalize funding for local schools.
SB 145, if it passes, would set aside revenue from growth in the state’s sales tax over a 10-year period to help compensate school district’s that have a low per student property value.
The bill was introduced in the Senate on Monday by Sen. Lincoln Fillmore, R-Jordan. Sen. Daniel Thatcher, R-West Valley City, who represents part of Tooele County, is a co-sponsor of SB 145.
“It will help level the playing field for teacher recruitment in our region and make us more competitive,” said Scott Rogers, Tooele County School District superintendent.
The bill is needed because of the disparity between property tax revenue collected by the same tax rate in different school districts, according to the bill’s supporters.
For example, Tooele County School District’s $268,000 of assessed property value per student is the seventh-lowest out of 41 school districts. The lower tax base requires a higher tax rate to produce the same amount of revenue as in school districts like Park City, which has $2.7 million of assessed property value per student.
Fillmore’s bill would not require a tax increase or take existing revenue from other school districts, according to Fair Student Funding, a group of legislators, state and local school board members, parents, and taxpayers who support SB 145.
Final numbers on how much revenue SB 145 would bring to Tooele County schools are not available yet, according to Rogers.
However, Fair School Funding suggests that SB 145 funding could be used for things like competitive salaries to help retain and recruit teachers, as well as advanced placement classes, college courses, and career and technical education opportunities.
“The richer school districts have the funding through their property taxes to provide those additional classes while the poor districts lack enough money to offer them in spite of much higher tax rates,” according to Fair School Funding.
Tooele County School District is waiting to see how much revenue SB 145 would generate for the school district before deciding how to spend it, according to Rogers,
“We want to strategically target what is best for kids and improving student achievement outcomes,” he said.
In addition to SB 145, Rep. Brad Last, R-Hurricane, has introduced House Bill 293 that also attempts to provide equity in school funding, according to Lark Reynolds, Tooele County School District business administrator.
“We support the concept of equalizing the state guarantees [funding] as these proposals will help our district,” Reynolds said.