Two pieces of legislation aimed at making a temporary teacher pay raise permanent advanced Monday in the Louisiana Legislature. (Allison Allsop/Louisiana Illuminator)
Two pieces of legislation aimed at making a temporary teacher pay raise permanent advanced Tuesday in the Louisiana Legislature.
Together, House Bill 5 by Rep. Tony Bacala, R-Prairieville, and House Bill 7 by Rep. Julie Emerson, R-Carencro, would use constitutionally protected funds to pay down approximately $2 billion dollars in teacher retirement system debt and require local school districts to use money they would have put toward that debt to make a $2,000 stipend the Legislature provided on a temporary basis for two years a permanent part of teacher’s salaries.
A $1,000 stipend for support workers would also be made permanent.
Emerson’s bill 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. Tying in the teacher pay aspect could play a crucial role in turning out voters to support the amendment.
Making the teacher pay raise permanent is one portion of the ambitious plan that has near-total bipartisan support from a Legislature with a supermajority of Republicans. Landry has faced pushback from Democrats on portions of the proposal that could increase the tax burden of low and middle income individuals, and business interests object to the elimination of certain tax exemptions aimed at drawing jobs and investment to the state.
Bacala’s bill, which requires districts to use the savings created by the retirement debt payment in Emerson’s bill, unanimously passed the House Education Committee and will next be debated by the House Appropriations Committee. Emerson’s bill passed the House on an 81-15 vote and will next be discussed in a Senate committee.
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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.
Using the money to pay down the unfunded accrued liability of the Teachers Retirement System of Louisiana (TRSL), which presently totals about $9 billion, would free up about $287 million annually for local school districts.
The debt payment wouldn’t make enough money available to fund making the raise permanent for every school district, but Bacala said he believed 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 by the nonpartisan Legislative Fiscal Office said the amount the state would need to provide could be anywhere between $70,000 and $6.2 million. The proposal does not require the Legislature to take this step, however. If they declined, teachers in those districts would actually see a pay cut from previous years.
For any school district that actually sees an excess in savings, Bacala’s bill requires that money to go toward additional pay increases.
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 for the four higher education systems annually pay toward the debt. 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 the 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 sales tax scheduled to expire June 30. If the plan passes in its entirety, analysts say it will result in a small, permanent increase to the state general fund, which pays for most state services. But it also will lead to an overall loss of revenue, particularly money kept in reserve accounts, of a few hundred million dollars annually.
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