Fate of budget validation to be decided today?
At 1pm today, the Education Committee will hold a work session on LD 570,the omnibus bill the committee is developing to “fix” the school district consolidation law:
Work Sessions
1:00 p.m. –
L.D. 570: An Act To Improve the Laws Governing the
Consolidation of School Administrative Units
District
– Withdraw from a
Alternative Organizational Structure
– Dissolving a
Alternative Organizational Structure
– Budget Adoption Procedures
That last agenda item, “budget adoption procedures,” is where the committee will decide whether or not to include in LD 570 an elimination of the budget validation process, something committee chair Sen. Justin Alfond hinted at last week.
Word on the street is that most of the committee is content to leave budget validation alone, given that voters in most districts will be able to decide for themselves later this year whether to keep the controversial budget approval process or not. Under current law, the budget validation process itself is to go before voters every three years. This is the third year the process has been used in most districts.
SO, we will see later today what the committee has planned. If budget validation is important to you, letting the committee know that today might not be a bad idea.