The prime sponsor of Senate Bill 8 asks to table the legislation Thursday morning. Senator Larry Rhoden tells members of the Senate Ag committee he’s concerned with the big picture of capital outlay. He says when former Governor Bill Janklow equalized the education funding formula, he withheld capital outlay for a reason. Rhoden says the capital outlay system is broken and isn’t fair to school districts that aren’t rich in ag land.
“In 2009 we did a three year window where we allowed schools to use capital outlay to buy insurance, casualty insurance, energy costs, utility, motor fuel, transportation, mileage reimbursement. Three year extension, we’ll just give them that window of time. Guess what happened at the end of the three years, any guesses? We extended it, we extended it out to 2018. We have continued to chip away at capital outlay, distorted its original use, and all we’ve done is magnified a system that is completely unequitable,” Rhoden says.
Rhoden says since 2001, the legislature has approved capital outlay funds to be used for short-term fixes. He says the governor’s office plans to take up the issue to try and create an equitable plan for the funds. The committee unanimously tabled Senate Bill 8.