NTF
Worksheet: ops61.doc. 9-08.
NEBRASKA TAXPAYERS FOR
FREEDOM WORKSHEET:
ANALYSIS OF THE OMAHA PUBLIC SCHOOLS BUDGET: FY 2008 –
2009.
BACKGROUND. The
proposed General Fund local budget for OPS in FY 2008-2009 is 6.8 % higher,
higher than the inflation rate (p.5),
which is reaching 5%, and over $170
million greater than the City of Omaha budget.
The property tax requirement for the OPS general fund has
increased 2% and equals about 43% of this fund budget, 5% higher than last
fiscal year (p.7); total property taxes required for the total state
reported budget would increase by about $5 million (p.9). Your budgeted
revenue hike is about $41 million. The graph (p.8) that shows OPS school taxes
paid from variously valued homes misleads, because it shows OPS property taxes
only a bit higher on 3 valued homes.
This graph does not factor in the average 5 % valuation hikes on Douglas
County homes this year. Although the projected property tax levy
rate would rise only a bit (p.7), property owners would pay higher property taxes because of 5% increased
valuations. The owner of an average
$100,000 home in 2007, with increased valuation to $105,000, would pay about
$1,260.67 in tax this year, not $1200.
The owner of an average $200,000 home in 2007, with increased valuation
to $210,000, would pay about $2,521.34 in tax this year, not $2400 (p.8). Your
total general fund expenditures would rise by almost 18%. Your total general fund budget rises by about
5%. Your state aid has increased by 14%,
special state aid by 45%, local revenues other than taxes by 14%, and
miscellaneous revenues by 36%. (p.7). Generous budget funding support from
private foundations we could not locate in the budget. Your budget growth rate now can reach 2.5%
instead of 0%, and the board can vote to spend an additional 1%. Your spending limitations have a number of
exemptions, for special education, interlocal agreements, early retirements, and
lease purchase contracts (p.5). Therefore, we urge you to lower the tax levy to
neutralize the recent valuation hikes on district property.
POSITIVES. OPS
has increased its utilization of cooperative agreements with other government
entities, e.g., an employee assistance program and a consortium for
transportation, saving money long-term and creating efficiencies (p. 10). OPS saves taxpayers money by using lease
financing, which allows it to purchase larger quantities without spiking the
expenditure budget and spreads the costs over several years. Lease-purchasing of computer equipment and
other large equipment orders will save dollars in future (p. 3). Negotiating
with neighboring school districts to purchase food products and working through
the statewide coop operated by the ESU Coop Purchase System saves money. Using “just in time” periodic contracts to
get supplies to schools avoids warehousing small school supplies like glue and
tape that can degenerate over time.
NEGATIVES. Projected enrollment for next school year is
dropping (p. 2), yet the OPS regular instruction budget would rise by over 7%
(p. 5). Despite these higher
expenditures, OPS 2008 CAT composite test scores show that 28 of your 64 grade
schools evidenced over 10% of children falling into the low scorers ranking,
while 40 of these elementary schools showed either worse scores or no better
than the previous year. In your middle schools,
10 of 11 saw 16% to 41% of kids falling into the low scorer percentile, while 9
of these 11 showed either worse scores or no better than the previous
year. The lowest scoring schools in the metro area
on ACT tests were OPS schools. Each OPS
school scored below the state and national average. Throwing more tax dollars at these problems
will not improve academic achievement.
BUDGET CUT & EFFICIENCY SUGGESTIONS. We recommend the following proposals:
- Accelerate
completion of additional interlocal agreements with other local
subdivisions for cost savings and efficiencies of service.
- Supplies
and materials costs would increase by over 4% (p. 9). These items needed for new students in
new schools, OPS should aggressively design and promote joint purchasing
agreements with other school districts and government subdivisions to
order in bulk equipment, supplies, and instructional materials, lowering
these costs.
- OPS
should pursue shared cost/shared service agreements for use of facilities
like playgrounds and libraries, like one planned jointly with the City of
Omaha. The objective of shared
services means to provide pooled resources without adding regulatory
burdens. Share administrators and
support personnel, counseling services, testing, financial management, and
instructional TV. Initiate joint
planning, development, and evaluation.
Rotate equipment. Share
contracts for road, sidewalk, and parking lot repairs, purchase of office
furnishings, maintenance of athletic fields and lawns, electrical,
plumbing, and custodial services, vehicles and vehicle maintenance,
website design and maintenance, and food services. Each district/entity would contribute an
amount based on total district enrollment/use. More than 30 states now provide such
sharing agreements. Local districts
can leverage their purchasing power and gain more purchasing options and
perks. Each school district would
remain independent and autonomous, with its own school board and tax
base. OPS saved about $2.5 million
in energy costs as of 2005.
- Increased
computerization technology updating should bring collaborative agreements
with other districts to share specialized equipment and software, jointly
purchase software, and share networks and software specialists.
- Outsource
management of this computerization.
Private companies in Minnesota developed GovOffice to allow
cities to administer their web sites easily, post information on city
services, and provide easy ways for citizens to submit information
feedback.
- Calculate
per pupil cost by the more accurate average daily attendance instead of
average daily membership (p. 16).
- Factor
in the use of unused budget funds carried forward before you set new
appropriations. This largesse you
could return to the taxpayers in lower taxes.
- Halt
the expansion of all day kindergarten and pre-school, noting private donor
lapse in funding, as there exists no state mandate for either. Several studies have proved that such
programs do not enhance later learning.
- Halt
funding for the Early Childhood Education programs, not required by the
State. Savings: $2.6 million (p.5). Salaries, benefits, etc. would spiral by
10% for this function. (p. 29). Studies
have shown that these programs have no positive effect on later
learning.
- Special
education costs would rise by 9% (p. 11).
Early childhood special ed staffing costs would rise 19% (p.
27). Remove common behavior
problems from these classes to save funds.
- Lobby
state senators to fully fund the cost of mandated special education
programs.
- End
summer music programs and summer sports activities, saving a portion of
this $1.76 million expenditure that has risen by 43% from last fiscal year
(p. 32).
- End
the use of elementary school guidance counselors.
- Curtail
your non-necessity student community services, e.g., student personnel
assistants. The budget increased by
9% in this category (p. 13).
- Curtail
your TV and radio services under the Instructional Support category (p.
14).
- The
business of OPS is education, not social work. Dispense with social workers in your
budget.
- Replace
full-time and part-time paraprofessionals with volunteer retired teachers. Fulltime paraprofessional costs rise 10%
in the instruction budget (p. 2).
Train these volunteers to handle tasks required.
- Privatize
the custodial service, costs of which are rising 5% (p. 2).
- Accept
bids to privatize your buildings and grounds functions, as these costs
would rise by 6% in your budget (p. 5).
- Dispense
with police officers in elementary schools; pay teachers to learn martial
arts to handle the unruly children.
- Full-time
employee costs in the Business Support Services category rose by 47% (p.
21). Privatize and contract out
several of these services.
- Halt the
expansion of the voluntary student assignment plan and magnet school
programs. Such action would save
money spent on teachers and support staff.
- As the
cost of fuel is skyrocketing, end transportation for magnet and focus schools
and voluntary student assignment plans. OPS offers transportation to many
students, living close to home schools, for whom the State does not
mandate transportation availability.
Personnel and services costs in transportation services would rise
by 6% in this budget (p. 3). Contracted
services would rise by 6% (p 25). Social
engineering is one of the major causes of budget bloat for the past 8
years in both transportation and staffing costs. Expand your consortium for
transportation programs with neighboring school districts to hold down
costs (p. 10).
- Lobby
your congressional delegation to repeal mandated education for illegal
aliens, which would remove pressure from ESL student services.
- Over
half of your total general fund expenditure budget increase would sustain current staffing levels. Match negotiated salary increases to the
Midwest urban cost of living increase.
- Negotiate
contracts with staff for flexible and additional working hours, so that
payments for overtime pay (up 14%) and extra pay (up 21%) will decrease (p.
2). Overtime costs rose by over
100% in Special Education (p. 11), 13% in the Buildings & Grounds
category (p. 23).
- Employee
benefit costs are scheduled to rise by over 9%, after 25% last year (p.1),
8% for custodians (p. 23), 9% for early childhood ed (p. 29), and 12% for administration
employees (p. 19). These costs constitute about 30% of salary monies paid,
over 21% of the General Fund expenditure budget (p. 1), and 24% of the
regular instruction budget (p. 8).
Health insurance premiums have increased. Negotiate labor contracts, so that
employees pay 30% of health care premiums for themselves, spouses, and
families, as do most employees in the private sector.
- Lobby
to end the Rule of 85, which allows veteran teachers to voluntarily retire
early, their payments outside of budget limitations.
- Introduce performance measures and
objective-oriented program outputs for each department, as implemented by
the City of Omaha for the last 5 fiscal years.
- Utilize
incentive-based salaries tied to performance and bonuses to employees who
exceed expectations.
- Total
regular instruction costs would rise 7%. Several studies by Dr. Eric
Hanushek prove that shrinking student/teacher ratios does not hinder
learning or detract from student achievement. Increase class sizes to stem the
projected needed increase in staffing (p. 9).
- Periodical
costs would rise about 200% (p. 3).
Encourage greater student use of the Internet to download
periodical and research materials.
- Utilize
higher deductibles for district worker compensation and enlarge the pool
with neighboring districts to lower costs.
- Costs
for attending workshops, conferences, and meetings for the ESU would rise
by 10% (p. 44). Cut the number of
staff attending these functions and conduct more of them via
telecommunications.
- Cut
the number of organizations to which OPS belongs and must pay yearly dues
and fees.
- Appoint
a citizen cost-cutting committee to find ways to excise waste and
inefficiencies in the OPS budget.
CONCLUSION. Your
budget document frequently mentions solicitation of community input, but we
firmly believe that this board is not
paying attention to taxpayer needs or concerns or implementing suggestions
for budget cuts.
Research, documentation, and analysis for this
worksheet done by members of NE Taxpayers for Freedom, with express
prior permission granted for its use by Citizens for Local Control, Cherry
County Taxpayers, Dawes County Taxpayers, and other groups in the Tax
Freedom Network. 9-08. C