A more thoughtful manner

When the 66th Wyoming Legislature gathered in Cheyenne, they arrived with a heavy task on their shoulders. Following the economic impacts of the coronavirus (COVID-19), a number of budget cuts were on the table including education funding.

The State of Wyoming is obligated, through the state constitution, to fund education. In the interim sessions, the School Recalibration Committee had made their recommendations on how to make those cuts while still fulfilling the legislature’s constitutional obligations.

When the most recent legislative session ended, however, neither the House nor the Senate had come to a deal. Leading the House in negotiations was House District 47 Representative Jerry Paxton (R - Encampment), who served as Chairman of the House Education Committee.

Paxton leading the House Education Committee wasn’t the only change. Two longtime legislators, Albert Sommers (R - Pinedale) and Steve Harshman (R - Casper), joined Paxton on the committee alongside two newly elected Representatives, Ocean Andrew (R - Laramie) and Chip Neiman (R - Hulett).

“We started off with one bill that was 62 pages long and then we amended it so many times we had to have a substitute bill and then that became unrecognizable, so then we went to (House Bill) 173, a totally new bill, and then that became unrecognizable because of all the changes and negotiations, so we ended up with a substitute 173,” said Paxton. “Then, on top of that, when we really got into the negotiation part of it we ended up with all these other amendments and changes to it. So, it was a long process but there’s a lot of moving parts in this thing and a lot of things to consider.”

According to Paxton, it seemed obvious to the House of Representatives the legislature would not be able to cut their way out of the structural deficit looming over education funding. The approach the House Education Committee took, then, was to propose modest cuts over a period of time and combine them with taxes Paxton himself had proposed a few years prior.

“We went back to a few years ago when I proposed a two cent sales tax to support education because I could see the handwriting on the wall and that was knocked down to one cent and then eventually defeated over in the senate,” Paxton said. “So, we resurrected part of that bill and brought it back in to support education.”

The proposed two cent tax was eventually negotiated down to a one cent sales tax that would have raised approximately $164 million in revenue for education. Combined with diverting funds from the Rainy Day Fund, would have covered the nearly $300 million structural deficit on education funding. It also would have accounted for anywhere from 2,500 to 3,000 jobs within Wyoming’s school system.

“The University of Wyoming did a survey and that survey showed overwhelming support for that, if it was specific to using it for education. If you go into any of these small towns and ask people ‘Would you pay an extra penny to keep your school?’ you’re going to get a resounding ‘Yes, we would pay’ and that’s people that don’t even have kids in school,” said Paxton. “The schools are such a center of activity for these small communities and when they go away, these communities die.”

Paxton added, as tax averse as most Wyomingites are, they are willing to pay it if they know specifically what it will go towards. One example is the optional tax often issued on the county level that appears before voters. The most recent optional tax in Carbon County, the One Percent Specific Purpose Sales and Use Tax (6th penny tax), passed in May 2019 with 75 percent approval.

“No matter what we do, we can’t cut our way out of this dilemma that we’re in right now,” said Paxton. “There’s no way we can cut that many teachers and even consolidation of school districts, all that really does is combine the superintendents and the business managers and those kinds of things.”

According to Paxton, the amount saved in consolidated According to Paxton, the amount saved in consolidated school districts would have ranged between $7.4 million and $9 million. A minimal amount when compared to a deficit that is hundreds of millions of dollars in size. For the former Encampment principal, the money saved wasn’t nearly worth the amount of local control lost in combining school districts throughout the state.

Yet another factor considered in discussing education funding was the Federal funding given to Wyoming included with COVID-19 stimulus funding. While the quickest answer appeared to be to apply that funding to the deficit and move on to the next session, Paxton felt that it was simply a stop gap measure on an issue that desperately needed addressed.

“It’s inevitable that we’re going to have to make some cuts but I think we can make those cuts in a thoughtful, responsible way and do it over a period of time to allow school districts to make those adjustments. When you’re dealing with contract people that are on tenure, you can’t just go out and start wiping out personnel and that’s where 80 percent of the money is in education,” said Paxton. “You’ve got to approach it in a more thoughtful manner and I think that’s what the House was trying to do with what we did.”

Tied in with his concern about education funding, Paxton’s concern with the amount of cutting that was proposed was the message it was sending to new and future educators. As funding gets cut, with the majority of that being personnel, school districts may have to implement their reduction in force policy. The result typically is the newest educators to arrive in the district are the first to be cut.

“That reduction in force policy was put into place many years ago and it seemed to be the most fair way, at the time, of doing that but it does eliminate a lot of very bright, energetic, enthusiastic young people,” Paxton said. “Not only are we doing irreparable harm by taking those young, enthusiastic kids out of there, young teachers out of there, but we’re sending a signal to the people that are in the pipeline ‘Don’t come to Wyoming. Go somewhere else for a job’. I think the long term ramifications of this are pretty serious.”

While negotiations between the House of Representatives and the Senate may have broken down as the legislative session came to an end, it doesn’t mean education won’t be funded. On the contrary, by not passing the updated funding model for education, it means that the State of Wyoming continues to fund education following the current model. Paxton, however, is more than willing to return to negotiations when the education committee meets in July.

“I hope we can put this behind us. It’s not in the best interest of the kids or the school districts to hold personal vendettas about some things that were said at the heat of the moment,” said Paxton. “We need to put that behind us and start working towards a reasonable approach to take care of this $300 million structural deficit.”