Education Funding
The SEEK base will remain fairly stable over the next two years, seeing
increases of a few dollars each year. Almost all other education
programs are facing a 1 1/2% funding cut next year and 1% cut the
following year. These cuts are on top of significant cuts over the last
two years, so programs like textbooks, preschool, safe schools, Read to
Achieve, FRYSCs, etc. have been deeply hurt by the state's budget
problems. 

The mandate to maintain 177 instructional days remains in the budget,
with the state paying for 176 days. Out in the state employees could
lose a day of work and pay, but our contract protects us in Jefferson
County.

The budget contains funding and authorization to replace most of the
category 5 schools, but this does not affect JCPS because we do too good
of a job of keeping up our buildings.

Health Insurance
The budget contains $90-$100 million too little for state and school
employee health insurance, assuming costs for the self-insured system
increase 7%-10% as expected. This underfunding is the primary budget
problem. The budget also removes some flexibility in plan design, a
second problem.

In a meeting late Thursday, the Senate A&R Committee adopted a budget
that included troubling language specifying some aspects of the state
insurance plan. Specifically, it caps the employer contribution at a set
amount, removing flexibility from the Department of Insurance. KEA and
JCTA strongly opposed this language and had been successful in removing
it from the House budget a week earlier.

When the budget finally came before the full Senate late yesterday, KEA
and JCTA tried to offer an amendment to remove the language. Senators
Brandon Smith (R-Hazard), David Boswell (D-Owensboro), and R.J. Palmer
(D-Mt. Sterling) worked hard on behalf of KEA and JCTA members. When
Sen. Smith tried to introduce our amendment, Sen. Robert Stivers
(R-Manchester) objected and Sen. Katie Stine (R-Southgate) who was
presiding at the time ruled it out of order since it had not been filed
24-hours before. (Since the A&R Committee put this language in less then
24 hours before, it would not have been possible to file the amendment
24 hours in advance!)

Once the Senate adopted the budget, the next option available was to get
the House not to concur with the Senate budget. But during the day
yesterday the House and Senate had negotiated that they would all agree
on the what the Senate adopted. KEA and JCTA were not able to persuade
House members to stall the budget just because of this issue, despite
great help from Rep. Charlie Miller (D-Louisville), Rep. Hubie Collins
(D-Whittensville) and others.

KEA and JCTA members will feel the impact of these problems with their
health insurance next fall when they get information about open
enrollment for 2011.

Other Issues
The budget contains no funding for raises for state or school employees.
Employer retirement contributions are funded. Remember, the impact of HB
540 (shared responsibility to fund KTRS retiree health care) will
decrease certified members' pay by one-quarter of one percent next year.

What's Next
The budget does not become law until the Governor signs it. He is
considering which portions of the budget to veto. He has ten days to
take action on the budget.

Thanks
Thanks to the lobbying team who worked incredibly hard during this
year's regular and special session. Special thanks also to all the KEA
and JCTA members who called their legislators, met with them and emailed
them. We believe these contacts are why the two days were restored and
education escaped the same cuts that other part of state government
suffered. Members responded to robo calls, kept up with developments via
Facebook, participated in Action Wednesdays, and read ACTION.