State’s first payment to USD 489 arrives later than usual, sparks concern

By KARI BLURTON
Hays Post

The district’s fear state payments would not be timely has been realized as the state’s first payment to Hays USD 489 was late, Tracy Kaiser, executive director of finance and support services, told school board members at Monday’s meeting.

A new provision included in the Legislature’s school funding compromise this session required all county treasurers in Kansas to mail the county’s real estate tax revenues to the state of Kansas instead of their school districts. The state then will mail payments to the school districts.

Kaiser said the first quarterly check was scheduled to be received Sept. 20, but was not sent to the district until Oct. 1.

“And that was one of our big concerns from day one about getting payments,” Superintendent Dean Katt told the board. “I hope it gets better and we don’t run into an issue in the future about having enough cash on hand. … Basically, the first month was pretty disappointing.”

When the requirement was announced in June, John Robb, attorney for Schools for Fair Funding, told Hays Post “there was no justification for shifting that local money to the state and then back to the locals.”

Republican leaders said the change was made so the state could create an “audit trail.”

CLARIFICATION: “We were informed that we would receive the payment on October 1st from the State, which we did. It took longer to receive it than it did last year, but it truly wasn’t ‘late,'” Kaiser told Hays Post on Thursday.