ASBA Blog

Tuesday, May 7, 2019

Day 114

Things you need to know:

• 1 Bill Passed Third Read
• 1 Bill Passed Final Read
• Budget Update
• List of Signed Bills

Passed Third Read

SB 1111 fine arts proficiency; state seal (Boyer) passed 51-6. ASBA is neutral.

Passed Final Read

SB 1026 school pupils; emergency medication distribution (Carter) passed 28-1. ASBA supports.

Signed Bills

For a list of the bills ASBA is monitoring that have already been signed by the Governor, please click here.

Budget Update

Last week saw a leak of preliminary Legislative budget documents from the Senate that the press claimed: “did not include some of the governor’s FY20 education priorities.” This led some to wonder whether that means that the promised installments of teacher pay and District Additional Assistance would actually be included. After all, they are not being talked about much these days.

Rest assured, the FY20 budget plan does include $164.7M for salary and $67.8M for district and charter additional assistance. These amounts were pre-appropriated in last year’s budget. Any surplus amounts that the Legislature has to spend this year are calculated after setting aside funds to pay for these commitments. That is the main reason why ASBA and our allies fought so hard to make certain that the funding was pre-appropriated.

Talk of education spending this year, of which we are also very supportive, is over and above the enacted employee pay and DAA restorations from the last session. The budget will also include $127.6M for inflation. That is, whenever it is finished.