Huffman, who was in the area to be part of the Tennessee Superintendent Study Council Conference, said he has had “helpful” sessions with people representing Sevier County, but dodged offering an opinion on the subject. Whether he was just being coy or actually has not yet made up his mind on the matter, his refusal to weigh-in may be a disappointment to local folks hoping for a few extra school dollars.
After pushing for more than four years for a change to the school funding model used by the state, local officials were optimistic that this could be the one when something actually changes. They have Rep. Richard Montgomery, R-Sevierville, chairing the House Education Committee and believed they found a willing ally in Huffman.
“I’m waiting to hear back from the commissioner as to what we’re going to do,” Montgomery said of Huffman recently. “Hopefully we can continue moving this football down the field and toward the goal line.”
Montgomery indicated local officials were able to find some agreement with Huffman on at least one area of the funding program in question and remained optimistic a full solution could be reached.
The area where Montgomery seemed most optimistic was in building accounting into the funding model for Central Business Improvement Districts (CBID) and Tourism Development Zones (TDZ), both of which exist in more than one city locally. In those state-designated areas, the municipality keeps a larger amount than normal of new tax revenues, which means a portion of those new funds are blocked from the schools.
Huffman confirmed he has spoken to local leaders about the matter and “understands” their concerns, but stopped short of backing them.
“I’m just anxious to keep having these conversations,” he said.
Local officials, including Director of Schools Jack Parton and County Mayor Larry Waters, also hope to find some common ground with folks in Nashville on the overall funding plan.
Called BEP 2.0, the model is a revision of an earlier program that used factors like a county’s income and tax collections to figure out how much of the sales tax it sends into the state it should get back in funding for schools. The new version takes out those factors and relies more on simple tax collections to make determinations on how money is allocated.
Because Sevier County attracts so many tourists, its numbers are skewed by sales tax revenues that make it appear to have a higher ability to pay for education. That means, though it is among the top few in terms of money it sends to Nashville, it is dead last in what it gets back per student, Waters has said.
Huffman’s answers on that issue were similar to on the CBID and TDZ funding.
“I’ve had discussions with officials from Sevier County about their concerns and how that plays out here,” he said. “I’m not sure where it will ultimately go. I think our discussions have been very good, though.”
The guarded responses are not wholly unexpected. For one thing, it’s unlikely someone in a position like the commissioner’s would publicly jump on board in support of a funding change requested by one county before an official decision has been made. That’s particularly true when Gov. Bill Haslam, who could not attend the superintendents’ meeting because he was negotiating on state bond issues Monday, hasn’t offered his own opinion on the matter.
It’s also likely not surprising considering how long local officials have been pushing just to make any headway. They were met with stiff resistance under former Gov. Phil Bredesen’s administration, which pushed BEP 2.0 into law, and have already grown impatient with Haslam. Still, Montgomery has said he believes slow but steady progress is the way to develop a model that is more fair to every county across the state, not just Sevier.
dhodges@themountainpress.com
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