Budget crisis forces freeze of school facilities funds 

School districts are getting caught up in the statewide freeze on infrastructure funding that has been ordered. Funding for more than 2,000 projects is affected, covering health, transportation and higher education as well as K-12 education. In K-12 alone, 912 projects are affected.

However, don't blame the State Allocation Board. Their action is forced by the fact that the Pooled Money Investment Board has frozen the money, so the SAB has nothing to allocate. The PMIB consists of the State Treasurer, the Director of Finance, and the State Controller. Their concern is that, without the freeze, the state will run out of cash to support operational programs, including apportionments to public schools.  For schools, the choice could be between paying contractors for facilities projects or paying school employees. The cash crunch is - of course - caused by the fact that the state budget is severely out of balance and the Legislature has not acted to either make cuts or raise revenue to correct the problem.

Board members, administrators and community members should contact their legislators immediately to let them know of the real world impact of their lack of action and of the need to include revenues as part of the solution.