A proposal to end state school bond aid was so misguided and patently unfair that the Kansas Senate didn’t even bother holding a hearing. Yet for some reason, state Rep. Joe McLeland (in photo), R-Wichita, plans to take up the matter in an Education Budget Committee hearing today. House Bill 2280 would eliminate state principal and interest aid for any bonds issued after the effective date of the law change. That means school districts such as Wichita that approved bonds but haven’t issued them yet wouldn’t get all their promised aid. If that happened, local taxpayers would see their taxes go higher than the amount they counted on when they approved the bond issues. How is that fair, and how is that not a tax increase? Breaking the state’s contract likely would also result in lawsuits and might hurt the state’s credit rating. It’s no wonder why the Senate quickly abandoned this bad idea. The House should do likewise.
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