Representatives from Holloman Air Force Base, the Committee of 50 and the Alamogordo Chamber of Commerce asked for support from New Mexico lawmakers Friday on the issue of federal IMPACT aid. The request was one of many made to state senators and representatives Friday [January 6, 2006] at the Otero County Courthouse for capital outlay funds. The three asked the legislators to support their efforts to reclaim $1.5 million in federal funding they say should be going directly to Alamogordo Public Schools.
Across the country, school districts with a large military presence receive federal money to make up for lost property tax revenue, Lt. Col. Skip Hinman, 49th Fighter Wing Operations Support Squadron commander, explained during an Oct. 19 Alamogordo Public Schools board meeting.
But the law allows a state to take the impact money and use it to equalize the per pupil expenditure, or amount spent per student, throughout all school districts. Because of this, the $1.5 million that should go to Alamogordo is redistributed throughout the state.
While the redistribution is supposed to equalize the PPE, Gen. Kurt Cichowski, 49th Fighter Wing commander, argued Friday that APS's per pupil expenditure was $780 below the state average. That, combined with low teacher salaries and low test scores compared to the rest of the nation, are a deterrent to military members transferring to Holloman.
"We've had four chief master sergeants, of the highest grade, who've elected to retire rather than come to Holloman," Cichowski said. "We're down about 574 people who are assigned, and of that about one-third of them have mentioned education as their reason they decided not to come here." Bill Burt, Committee of 50 member, said without military members and missions willing to come to Holloman, the base and town could be adversely affected during the next round of Base Realignment and Closures (BRAC) in 2015.
"The perception is it's not fair," Cichowski said. "Here is an issue of federal dollars coming to the school district from the federal government and it's taken away. I'm not saying we have to keep it all; I'm saying make it equal." [Note Cichowski will be replaced in May by Col. David Goldfein.]
Sen. Tim Jennings disagreed with the group's desire to keep it's impact aid money. "Don't ask me to sit here and tell you now that you're going to get to keep that money," Jennings said. "We've taken that money from all the rich areas and given it to Alamogordo, so you would have a tax base, because Otero County doesn't have tax base -- 88 percent of it is federally owned." Jennings said the government needs to start "paying it's own way" by increasing its PILT -- payment in lieu of taxes.
However, Rep. Terry Marquardt said the government is paying it's own way through impact aid. He also implied that Jennings was mistaken: impact aid isn't the same as the revenue generated from state taxes on oil and gas revenue or from leases on BLM land. "Now, to ask the federal government to provide paying their own way and then to put that in same category as state-generated funds, that's an inappropriate match of funding sources," Marquardt said.
Jennings also argued that if that money were given to Alamogordo, some smaller school districts might have to close because of a lack of funding. Ed Carr, chamber of commerce president, disagreed. "To put it in perspective, we're only talking about $1.5 million or $1.8 million, somewhere around there," Carr said. "I don't think we're going to shut a school district down by paying Alamogordo what their federal impact aid should be. It's not quite the magnitude I think you're thinking of."
Marquardt explained APS technically receives the impact aid -- the state gives them the money, but then lowers APS's state funding by the same amount. But this proves the district isn't getting its fair share. "Whether we get impact aid from the federal government or not, because the state takes credit for the money that comes in, we would get the same funding," said Marquardt. "So therefore, the state has been getting a Christmas present every year of $1.5 million, when in fact that is supposed to go to the education of military dependents."