Local tax drops will add $390 million to shortfall

Fiscal analysts today told a legislative joint subcommittee they will have to come up with an extra $390 million to make up for declines in local taxes going into the K-12 education budget.

Previous estimates had put the figure at anywhere from $200 million to $400 million. The figure detailed in this morning's hearing of the education subcommittee of the joint legislative money committee was the first official disclosure of the precise number the legislators will be using to craft their budget.

The lawmakers were told that local sales taxes that go into the Distributive School Account are projected to go down by $94 million in 2010 and $87.2 million in 2011, while property taxes in the school fund will decline by $67.3 million in 2010 and $141.7 million in 2010, for a total of $390.2 million over the biennium.

The local tax shortfall comes on top of a $509 million shortfall from the governor's budget that was projected by the Economic Forum last week.