Cooper to McCrory: Don't spend one time money on education

Published April 29, 2016

by Mitch Kokai, Carolina Journal, April 29, 2016.

Here are two questions for those who support additional state spending on North Carolina’s public schools. First, would you rather see spending go up by $543 million or $332 million in the next budget year? Second, would you like to see an additional $472 million devoted to teacher pay, or an additional $306 million?

These questions aren’t aimed at those budget hawks who examine all state spending requests with a critical eye. To answer those two questions, a conservative budget analyst might respond with questions of her own: How much money is the state already spending on public schools? How does that compare to other states and other industrialized nations?

How much bang are we getting for our public education bucks? How would the schools use the additional funding? Would the additional money for teacher pay target the best teachers and those in hard-to-staff subject areas, or would it be doled out in across-the-board raises?

Let’s set aside those important questions for the moment and assume, solely for the sake of argument, that more spending is invariably better. If that’s the standard, then you’re likely to choose the higher figure in answering both of the initial questions.

This is why it’s a bit curious to read a news release from the campaign committee of Roy Cooper, the Democratic state attorney general who’s seeking the governor’s office. It labels incumbent Republican Pat McCrory “a governor who simply doesn’t value public education.”

Cited as evidence of McCrory’s failure: The governor proposes spending an additional $543 million on K-12 education in 2016-17 rather than $332 million. The Cooper campaign also pans McCrory’s proposal to add $472 million for teacher pay, rather than $306 million.

To be fair, this is not how the Cooper campaign is describing the alternatives in the April 27 news release on McCrory’s “‘smoke and mirrors’ election-year budget.”

But an examination of the first two “background” items in Cooper’s release shows that the attorney general’s team essentially argues in favor of the lower spending figures. Why? Cooper seems to have a problem with using one-time, or nonrecurring, budget money for education purposes.

Quoting the first set of statistics compiled as background in Cooper’s release: “38.8% of McCrory’s Proposed Budget Increase for Education is One-Time Expenditures.” In other words, $211 million of the governor’s proposed $543 million in education spending adjustments involves one-time funds.

In the next paragraph, we learn “35.1% of McCrory’s Proposed Teacher Pay Increase Is One-Time Bonus Expenditures.” The release cites $166 million in bonuses among the $472 million proposed in additional money for paying teachers.

It’s these statistics that prompt the Cooper campaign to offer this unattributed conclusion: “A whopping 39 percent of the governor’s proposed education spending is with one-time money, making the payments nothing more than an election-year gimmick.”

Let’s address this statement in a couple of ways.

First, there’s a difference between “proposed education spending” and a proposed education spending increase. The governor’s plan would devote $8.9 billion in General Fund spending toward K-12 public schools in 2016-17. That’s the governor’s “proposed education spending.”

The nearly $9 billion total would represent a 5.2 percent increase from the 2015-16 certified budget. The $211 million in one-time money represents a not-so-whopping 2.4 percent of overall General Fund spending recommended for public schools in 2016-17.

But beyond that correction, here’s a second, perhaps more interesting, point: What’s the alternative?

State budget writers have both ongoing, or recurring, revenue sources and one-time money to work with as they develop their plans. It would be unwise for them to devote one-time money to programs, salaries, and other spending items that are expected to continue beyond 2016-17.

It makes much more sense to use one-time money for purposes that can be addressed in a single year. Return money to taxpayers. Place the money in savings. Spend it on building projects or pieces of equipment. Award one-time pay bonuses.

These are policy decisions. McCrory and his budget team decided to use $211 million of one-time money for one-time public education expenses, including $166 million for teacher bonuses.

Cooper and his team might have chosen to use that one-time money in a different way. The General Assembly still might choose to use that money in a different way as its drafts its budget. But one hopes none of them would decide to use that one-time money to pay for ongoing state government costs.

This leads back to the initial questions: Should education spending increase by $543 million or $332 million in the next budget year? Should an additional $472 million be devoted to teacher pay, or should that money be limited to $306 million? Take out the one-time money, and you’re left with the smaller numbers.

Based on Roy Cooper’s concern about an “election-year gimmick,” it appears that he would prefer less education spending.

Mitch Kokai is senior political analyst for the John Locke Foundation.

https://www.carolinajournal.com/opinion-article/cooper-to-mccrory-dont-spend-one-time-money-on-education/