Yesterday, the House Appropriations and Senate Finance
Committees released their amendments to the 2014-2016 biennial budget. We are
still waiting to receive the amendment half-sheets to get more details but overall both
bodies stuck fairly close to the governor’s recommendations for public
education. Both the House and Senate included additional funds, over the $150
million proposed by the governor, to pay down the deferred contribution portion
of the unfunded liability in the teacher retirement account. The House included
$190million and the Senate included $187.2 million. This pay-down will lower
the teacher retirement rate by 43 basis points, from 14.50% to 14.07%. As a
result of these payments, both the state and local school divisions will see a
positive impact on their budgets.
