Published: Saturday, November 24, 2012 1:00 AM CST

The business manager for the Yankton School District (YSD), said he wasn’t surprised when he found out both Initiated Measure 15 and Referred Law 16 were voted down during the election.

“The history in South Dakota has been pretty clear that residents do not want any new taxes,” Jason Bietz said. “We were hopeful that tax increase would pass and were somewhat optimistic that it would, but we never made assumptions on budget based on that passing.”

Initiated Measure 15 would have increased the tax rate from 4 to 5 percent and split the additional revenue evenly between education and Medicaid. Currently, the state aid for education is adjusted annually by 3 percent or the rate of inflation, whichever is less.

The measure failed across South Dakota with more than 56 percent of citizens voting it down, while more than 43 percent voted for the bill to be passed. Initiated Measure 15 failed in Yankton County with 55 percent of Yankton County voters rejecting the tax increase.

“We never really had concrete numbers on how much the sales tax increase would mean to YSD, but there were estimates that it could have meant about $700 per student in additional funding,” Bietz said. “Estimates showed the increase tax generating about $180 million in new revenue, meaning $90 million for education. The intent of Initiated Measure 15 was to make up for the funding that was cut two sessions ago.”

He added that district officials now must go back to square one, and YSD’s budget is still reeling from the cuts that were made a few years ago.

Referred Law 16 was an education reform act that would have established a teacher scholarship program, a program for science and math teacher bonuses, merit bonuses for teachers and a uniform evaluation system. It would have also eliminated teacher tenure.

The law failed across South Dakota, with more than 67 percent of voters rejecting the reforms proposed.

In Yankton County, 73.43 percent of residents that voted rejected the bill, while 26.57 percent voted yes.

“Frankly, most educators did not support Referred Law 16,” said YSD superintendent Dr. Joe Gertsema. “They looked at it as being a local decision, not a decision to be made at the state level. The state may continue to move forward with an accountability system and may also move forward with an evaluation system because the state agreed to a couple of those things when they accepted federal money. Whatever they decide, we have to accept.”

He added that teacher tenure is not an issue at YSD.

“We have an evaluation system here that is working for us, so we don’t think we need help in those areas,” Gertsema said. “We think the local school board can make those decisions. What we do need is a continued, on-going source of new revenue and state aid for education.”

Bietz said the message he took from the election was that citizens both in Yankton and across South Dakota are not in support of new taxes.

“We are still dealing with the revenue shortfall that took place after the cuts in funding were made,” he said. “It will take several years for the state to make that up just to bring us back at the level we were at prior to the deductions. We are in no different shape today then we were before Initiated Measure 15 was voted on. It would have made a huge difference though.”

He added the measure, if it was passed, would have brought about $1.8 million to the budget — about equal to a full year’s revenue source.

“It would have almost closed most of the budget shortfall that we are at right now,” Bietz said. “However, it would not have brought back the things we have had to eliminate. We need new revenue in the state or less spending. Less spending means cuts.”

Next up for officials in YSD is to monitor Gov. Daugaard’s upcoming budget address.

“We are waiting on proposals from the governor’s address and the new Legislature in Pierre,” Gertsema said. “The state has a larger surplus than they anticipated. The surplus is about $52 million, so we will see what happens.”

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