Please contact your state representatives to let them know they need to take action before they adjourn in September to fix a shortfall in revenue limit funding for districts participating in the Quality Education Investment Act (QEIA) program.  This shortfall was created in the budget trailer bill, approved in July, which effectively redirects revenue limit dollars to QEIA.  The result will be a reduction to your revenue limit equal to the amount of funding the district receives for QEIA. 

There is legislation pending that states that the reduction to your district revenue limits will not occur until the Superintendent of Public Instruction and the Director of the Department of Finance certify that there is sufficient federal or state funds to fully backfill the cut. 

This is a very critical and time sensitive issue, and the bill to address it (SBx3 12, Steinberg and Bass) is expected to be amended and taken up tomorrow (Thursday, September 10) in both the Assembly and Senate.  We urge you to contact your legislators immediately and ask them to support the QEIA fix bill. 

Thank you,

Debra Brown, Senior Legislative Advocate (dbrown@csba.org)

Marites Ares, Legislative Analyst (mares@csba.org)

Dear [ Decision Maker ] ,

As your constituent and a school board member representing schoolchildren in your district, I am writing to urge you to support SBx3 12 (Steinberg and Bass) to ensure that school districts with QEIA schools will not have their revenue limits cut until sufficient federal and state funds are available to fully backfill those cuts.

This revenue limit reduction was contained in the recently enacted July Budget -- Section 39 of AB 2 4x. It was totally unexpected and school districts have had no time to prepare for these reductions. The revenue limit reduction for each school district is equal to the total of QEIA allocation to the schools in that district.

SB 12 in the third extraordinary session contains a temporary stopgap that will ensure that school districts with QEIA schools will not suffer needlessly from a reduction to their general fund dollars until sufficient federal and state funding can be identified.

Thank you in advance for your actions to help immediately remedy this situation.

Sincerely,

Campaign Launched:
September 09, 2009