Rep. Mark McBride today filed a measure that would transfer funds from the Tobacco Settlement Endowment Trust (TSET) to use as a recurring revenue stream that school districts could use to compensate educators and staff that promote health and well-being for Oklahoma students.
House Bill 1245 would transfer 50 percent of “the moving ten-year average earnings amount” from the TSET fund, which would then be allocated to school districts to “promote the health and quality of life for students in pre-kindergarten through twelfth grade.”
“My goal is to find an ongoing revenue stream that we can use to compensate certain teachers involved in health and wellness, while freeing up funds to pay other teachers,” said McBride, R-Moore. “Not only would this provide those teachers and support staff a funding stream for compensation every year, but it would also indirectly help us reduce smoking among students. Studies show that better educated youth are much less likely to smoke. Increasing pay helps us attract and retain quality teachers, which helps improve our entire education system.”
McBride said the amount transferred could be anywhere from $15 to $25 million annually, depending on how well the TSET investment portfolio performs. In 2016, the investments produced a return of $26.3 million, but produced $46 million the prior year. TSET has a corpus endowment of more than $1 billion, and receives an additional amount annually from the tobacco settlement agreement with tobacco companies
The funds could be used “for the purpose of compensating personnel involved in specialized mental health services, physical education exclusive of organized athletic programs, school nurse programs, special education services” and other programs that are consistent with promoting health and wellbeing of school children.
Robert Romines, superintendent of Moore Public Schools said the bill would allow school districts an additional revenue stream to compensate some teachers while freeing up funds from the districts general fund to compensate others.
“Mental health services is a growing and on-going expense for public schools,” said Romines. “For example, the Moore School District employs several individuals in the mental health profession. Salaries for these individuals are paid from our general fund and or special education funds. The proposed bill would offset part of these expenditures and would allow savings to the general fund.”
The 2017 legislative session begins on February 6.
Dear Mike,
I suspect many readers of the McCarville Report, as well as a large majority of Oklahomans, still strongly support term limits for legislators.
No argument from me. The sooner most of the current batch of lawmakers try their hand in some profession less challenging for them the better.
Rep McBride’s suggestion to tap the Tobacco Settlement Endowment Fund for on going expenses in our public schools is frankly nothing more than ‘blowing smoke’, tobacco or otherwise, to disguise, distort or otherwise cover up the fiscal crisis he and others of similar inclinations in the legislature have blatantly caused.
TSET is a constitutionally created fund established by the voters of Oklahoma to insure that clueless solons such as McBride would find it almost impossible to get their incompetent budgeting hands on it.
If he sincerely wants to restore funding to public schools such as those he allegedly represents Rep McBride would introduce a bill to restore the billion dollars of personal income tax cuts he gleefully and repeatedly has voted for and which have served no good purpose measured by economic growth or any of the other ‘smoke and mirror’ reasons expressed when passed.
I won’t hold my breath waiting for such a common sense response when none exists in the current legislature. However before I even draw my next breath I’m pretty sure some eagle eyed Tea Party fiscal conservatives will opine McBride makes perfect sense to them.
And that of course is exactly the real problem.
Cal Hobson