Rep. Tony Bacala presents his bill. (Allison Allsop/Louisiana Illuminator)
The Louisiana House of Representatives approved the second part of a legislative combo that would provide make permanent a K-12 public school teacher pay raise.
House Bill 5 by Rep. Tony Bacala, R-Prairieville, advanced Thursday on a 99-0 vote. Together with House Bill 7 by Rep. Julie Emerson, R-Carencro, the legislation would use constitutionally protected funds to pay down approximately $2 billion dollars in state teacher retirement system debt. Local school districts would be required to use money they would have put toward that debt to make a $2,000 stipend the Legislature provided on a temporary basis for the past two years a permanent part of teachers’ salaries.
A $1,000 stipend for school support workers would also be made permanent.
Emerson’s bill, which cleared the House on a 81-15 vote, is a constitutional amendment that requires voter approval and also contains several other constitutional changes required to make Republican Gov. Jeff Landry’s tax package complete.
The two bills will next be discussed in Senate committees.
Tying in the teacher pay aspect, which has near-total bipartisan support, could play a crucial role in turning out voters to support the amendment. Landry has faced pushback from Democrats on portions of the proposal that could increase the tax burden of low- and middle-income individuals. Business interests object to the elimination of certain tax exemptions aimed at drawing jobs and investment to the state.
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If voters reject Emerson’s constitutional amendment, lawmakers would have the choice of either funding the teacher pay raise through the regular budget process or cutting teacher pay.
The three funds Emerson is seeking to use to pay down the debt – the Louisiana Quality Education Trust Fund, the Louisiana Education Quality Support Fund and the Education Excellence Fund – currently support various educational programs.
Rep. Barbara Freiberg, R-Baton Rouge, a former teacher, said using those funds will lead to the elimination of 1,500 seats in early childhood education programs. The money also pays for certain higher education needs, including research and matching endowments.
Lawmakers also approved an amendment to the bill Thursday that would give school districts flexibility in how they use any excess funds that would have gone toward retirement debt payments. This could make up for some of the early childhood education seats that could be lost by raiding the funds that finance them, but not every school district would see extra savings.
In fact, some school districts would not see enough savings to make their teacher pay raises permanent, but Bacala said he believes it would cost the state less than $1 million to make up the difference, a small drop in the bucket of the entire state budget.
An analysis of the bill from the nonpartisan Legislative Fiscal Office said the amount the state would need to provide for school districts that come up short could be anywhere between $70,000 and $6.2 million.
Bacala’s bill does not explicitly address charter schools, whose teachers are largely not in the Teachers Retirement System of Louisiana. Orleans Parish, where nearly all schools operate under charters, would see the least benefit from the bill, but lawmakers are looking at alternatives to fund raises so charter teachers do not see a pay cut.
“It’s my intention to treat everyone equally and make everyone whole,” House Appropriations Chairman Rep. Jack McFarland, R-Jonesboro, said in an interview.
The retirement debt payment would also free up about $75 million annually currently paid toward the debt by Louisiana’s four higher education systems: University of Louisiana, LSU, Southern and the community and technical college system. Legislators, including McFarland, currently seem in favor of allowing higher education to retain that savings, but this would not be finalized until the Legislature crafts the 2025-26 budget in its spring legislative session.
Allowing higher education to retain these savings would make up for the approximately $20 million in support institutions will lose by dissolving the three state funds.
The total package is aimed at stabilizing the state budget after years of relying on a temporary 0.45% sales tax scheduled to expire June 30. If the plan passes in its entirety, analysts say it will result in a small, permanent increase in revenue for the state general fund, which pays for most state government services.
But it also will lead to an overall loss of state revenue, particularly money kept in reserve accounts, of a few hundred million dollars annually.
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