RSA Dies. Keep The RSA Dead!
Several slides in the Arlington County Manager’s presentation on revenue at a budget worksession on February 22, 2011 dealt with the revenue sharing agreement (RSA), which was initially adopted in 2001. The "(i)ntent was to provide ‘consistent and stable forecast of revenue for annual fiscal planning.’” In the intervening years, “(n)umerous revision” have been made, especially since 2005, “primarily to exclude revenues for County needs.” Most of those revisions were made in the fall 2009.
The Manager’s presentation went on to explain that the “(c)urrent agreement provides (a) disproportionate share of revenues to the Schools as enrollment increases.” As a result, she went on, “the Schools transfer for FY 2012 would have been 51.2% of shared local revenue for a total transfer of $391 million or $31 million over the FY 2011 adopted level.” Moreover, the county’s portion would have resulted in only “an $8 million increase over FY 2011.”
The County Manager then recommend that “(N)ew revenue growth ($38.7 million” (be) split based on FY 2011 share of All local tax revenue” be split 53.9% County and 46.1%. In addition, she urged a simplified methodology, primarily by eliminating exclusions, and then reworking the agreement in the fall.
The slide presentation contained a great deal of informative detail, including such information as the “county transfer per student,” which increased from $10,780 in FY 2002 to $17,922 in FY 2009, dropping slightly to $17,010 in the proposed FY 2012 budget.
At the School Board’s own budget worksession following the Superintendent’s presentation of his proposed FY 2012 budget on February 24, 2011, the Board’s discussion was focused on a table titled “County Transfer Summary.” In addition, the School Board asked for a “chart which shows the percentage of total County tax revenue APS has received over the past five years. Schools staff provided their chart in “School Board Question #05,” which you can find in the School Board material for their March 8, 2011 budget worksession.
By the way, during their annual visit to the Arlington County Civic Federation on March 1, 2011, the School Board was asked about the RSA by two ACTA delegates, and they were told, among other comments, that the RSA has indeed been modified a number of times, and that they do plan to look at it in the fall.
My apologies if the above seems a bit verbose. However, the is so much complexity, and so little space. Consequently, the County Manager’s recommendation to simplify the methodology seems especially relevant. A better idea is to let the revenue sharing agreement die an ignominous death. Rather, the Superintendent and School Board should be required to develop and defend a budget that is needed to provide Arlington students an education. Don’t put the Schools budget on auto-pilot.