Lynch, Lawmakers Mull Building Aid Suspension

Talk to Governor Lynch about school building aid and two things become quite clear. One, he thinks big changes are necessary:

"I think we need to take a comprehensive look at the program, take a step back, and see what’s the best way to really provide educational opportunities for kids."

And two, Lynch is he’s open to closing the spigot on building aid for 2010:

“If there is going be some a suspension, it need to happen soon, so we don’t get town meetings dependent on certain state aid that may not come forward.”

Lynch adds that his main long term goal is that building aid gets to towns that need it the most. But school officials from some of the state’s neediest school are already arguing that an immediate suspension may not be the fairest approach.

"We did some figuring at the board meeting last night."

Jacque Guilmette is school superintendant for SAA #6, which includes Claremont, Cornish and Unity. She says Claremont officials ran numbers on how the local tax rate would fare if voters approved a 23 million dollar bond to improve Stevens high school, which hasn't had a major renovation in 40 years.

“With state aid, with that 60%, the increase on the Claremont tax rate would be 1.82 per thousand. That’s pretty significant hit here in Claremont. Without the building aid, we quickly figured it would be a tax increase of $2.90.”

In other words, a deal killer.

“Absolutely.”

But to supporters of the aid freeze, keeping things the way they are will do mortal harm to the state budget. David Campbell sits on the building aid oversight commission. He’s a democrat from Nashua.

“The program has tripled in size in the last ten years, to 47 million dollars now. The state is having trouble paying for that, in fact in the current budget it’s bonded. We asked the department of education to see how much is in the pipeline. There are over 20 school districts looking at projects totally over 400 million dollars, the state’s share would be 160 million dollars. There is just no way the state can afford that.”

Opinions differ on how the state’s decision to bond that 47 million dollars is driving the necessity of a building aid overhaul. Bonding aid was Governor Lynch’s idea, and he insists it has no bearing on the current situation.

“No, no, I don’t think so. I think what we need to do is, as I said is step back, look to see how the program is working, evaluate the goals of the program when the program was first established.”

But others, including the state’s treasurer have warned that over time the interest costs from bonding the payments would overtake the amount of aid being distributed. Senate Minority Leader Peter Bragdon echoes that concern. But he also he can lawmakers can improve the aid law to direct less money to richer towns and help poorer towns move on long-thwarted projects without a suspension.

“Those are things we could do this legislative session, but why are we going to jeopardize projects in Claremont, in Unity, that have been ready to go for years and are at the final point where people are going to say yes and we are going to pull out the run from under them because of the poor financing decisions that were made 3 years ago?”

The school aid oversight committee is slated to vote on its recommendations December 1st. Lawmakers would have to act quickly to put any changes into law by town meeting day.