The Garden City Telegram

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AP: Schools need help in dealing with delay

Published 12/9/2009 in Local News

TOPEKA (AP) — A cash crunch forced Kansas to delay $173 million in aid payments to its public schools this month, and a top education official said Tuesday that a few districts need help from the state to make their December payrolls.

State Budget Director Duane Goossen confirmed that there hasn't been enough money in Kansas' main account to meet its obligations to its 295 school districts. Some funds due in December might not be sent until early January.

But Deputy Education Commissioner Dale Dennis said the state will relent for a few districts and send funds so they can pay their employees on time. Other districts, he said, may have to violate state laws governing their cash management for a few weeks.

"We don't want anybody to miss payroll," Dennis said during a meeting of the State Board of Education.

Dennis listed seven districts who needed the state to relent so they can make their payrolls: Hays in northwest Kansas; Ashland, Hugoton and Skyline in southwest Kansas, and Buhler, Haven and Wellington in south-central Kansas. He said he expects a few more will fall into the same category.

Hays Superintendent Fred Kaufman said: "You'd think you could depend on the state of Kansas to provide the funding they're obligated to provide."

The state was supposed to make $196 million in general aid payments to school districts Dec. 1 but delayed half of the payments — about $98 million — until the end of the month.

Also, the state is supposed to make an additional $75 million in payments Dec. 15 for special education programs. Those payments could be about three weeks late, he said.

"It depends on when we have the cash to do it," he said.

School districts faced similar delays in their November general aid payments. The first half of state payments, some $103 million, got to them five days late, on Nov. 6, and the second half on Dec. 2.

Dennis said he expects aid payments in January and February to be delayed as well; Goossen conceded that's possible. State school board Chairwoman Janet Waugh called the prospect "frightening."

"They don't have to pay a penalty, like I do if I don't make my payments on time," said Waugh, a Kansas City Democrat. "That's very frustrating."

But board member Walt Chappell, a Wichita Democrat, wasn't as alarmed. He noted that when the state's budget year started July 1, districts collectively had $175 million in emergency reserves, as well as tens of millions of dollars more in yet-to-be spent operating funds.

"That gives us some cushion," he said.

Dennis noted that state law limits how school districts can spend various funds — and requires them to keep a positive balance in each individual account. Some districts may violate those rules temporarily to make their December payrolls, he said.

But he said the situation is more dire in the few districts that didn't have enough total funds to cover their payrolls without their full state aid payments.

Those districts will get their last general aid payments for the month earlier than others — about $2 million in all, he said.

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