Va. Beach still at odds with schools over revenue split

VIRGINIA BEACH

Six months after the City Council ordered a comprehensive review of local education funding, school and city officials remain divided over the thorny issue of how to split local tax revenues.

Answers are expected in the coming weeks as City Manager Jim Spore and schools Superintendent Jim Merrill move toward making a formal recommendation.

The funding formula that's been in place since the 1990s could be on the chopping block, mirroring a regional trend that has seen similar school funding agreements fall by the wayside as the economy has sputtered.

Spore and Merrill had hoped to make a recommendation on the formula earlier this month but said they needed more time.

Neither has spoken publicly about the negotiations, and elected officials on both sides of the debate say they've been kept in the dark.

"I honestly don't know what they're going to recommend," School Board Chairman Dan Edwards said. "But I'd like to find out soon."

The funding formula has been a source of friction between the two bodies as revenues have tightened in the slumping economy. The schools get 51.3 percent and the city gets 48.7 percent of seven city tax revenue streams.

The city has gradually reduced the division's share of revenues in recent years. The schools originally received 53.1 percent of revenues when the formula was implemented in 1997 in an effort to ease annual budget disputes.

Mayor Will Sessoms said rigid funding formulas don't work in tight economic times because of competition over money. Will it be killed in Virginia Beach?

"There are people on council that wouldn't object to that, but I don't know if it's a majority," he said.

Sessoms and Vice Mayor Louis Jones proposed eliminating the formula as part of the city's budget ordinance in May, but a majority of council members objected and asked for time to study the issue.

"We're going to hear what Mr. Spore has to say, but if I were a betting man I'd have to say the funding formula is going to be in jeopardy," Councilman Bob Dyer said.

Councilman John Moss said it's time to get rid of it. "The funding formula is hosed," he said.

He said he favors a "needs-based" budget from the school division.

Fewer than 10 of Virginia's 133 public school divisions are funded through formula agreements, according to a recent study conducted by a special School Board funding committee. A number of localities across the region, including Charlotte, have terminated school funding formulas in recent years in lieu of budget flexibility, the committee found.

School Board Vice Chairman Bill Brunke led the funding committee and said he suspects that the city will ditch the formula.

"My preference is to have something predictable and something that puts the School Board in position to manage a budget," Brunke said. "Throw that out, I'm not sure that's in everyone's best interest."

Spore and Merrill could make a recommendation as early as Dec. 6, officials said.

Mike Hixenbaugh, (757) 222-5117, mike.hixenbaugh@pilotonline.com

Aaron Applegate, (757) 222-5122,

aaron.applegate@pilotonline.com