BARTLESVILLE, Okla. -- Officials with Bartlesville Public Schools on Wednesday proposed a $100 million solution to end the teacher walkout in the state.
Teachers are protesting over a lack of education funding in the state.
Here's the information BPS sent out in a news release as to how the walkout could end:
1. Directly fix the problem created by HB 1012xx (the deal with
the Senate to repeal the lodging tax in HB 1010xx): the $50
million hole in the funding for the state pay raises.
2. Approve $50 million in new revenue to add to the appropriation
to the Department of Education as formula dollars for district
operations.HOW TO DO THIS IN ONE FELL SWOOP:
● House could pass SB 1086 to fully repeal the capital gains tax
exemption. That would provide enough funding to allow the
lodging tax to be repealed and still fully fund the earlier bills,
AND would provide enough funding to increase the Dept. of Ed.
appropriation by $50 million or more.
● OR block HB 1012xx to leave the lodging tax in place and then
amend SB 1086 to repeal the capital gains tax exemption
EXCEPT for agriculture. Appropriate the savings to the Dept. of
Ed. appropriation and become school heroes who quickly
ended the walkout.
Alternate revenue measures to help provide the additional $50 million in formula dollars for schools:
● Pass measures to end tax credits for wind energy and place a tax on Amazon third-party vendor sales.
● Senate can pass HB 1013xx, the ball & dice bill measure, to provide $22 million in revenue for later
fiscal years.A $50 million net increase in taxation is little more than ½ of 1% of the total taxes collected by the state last year.
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