Alabama schools seek loans to pay salaries.
October 31, 2008 - The Mobile County system this week borrowed $18 million from a bank to make its $33 million payroll on Friday.
Baldwin County school officials may need to take out a multi-million dollar loan to pay their teachers and employees to pay their employees early for the winter break. Earlier this week the Baldwin County school system borrowed $2.5 million from its $22 million savings account after the state announced it would cut monthly payroll allocations by 25 percent.
The state Suprintendent advised schools that the Education Trust Fund would only be able to pay 75 percent of October's payroll costs due to a lack of tax revenue.
Community colleges in Alabama will not be receiving state allocations to pay for the October payroll, due to the dwindling state of the Alabama Education Trust Fund. And community colleges will only be paid after the k-12 schools are.
The 25 percent state shortfall left many administrators concerned that across-the-board spending cuts -- called proration -- are looming.
The Oct. 31st Anniston Star editorial was blunt about the reasons for the cash flow problem.
For too long, Alabamians have foolishly believed that using sales and income taxes to pay most of the bills for public education was an acceptable plan. Regressive sales taxes fluctuate too wildly in tough times? Who cares, some Alabamians say. Income taxes aren't reliable enough to ensure that schools' needs will be met? Let the next Legislature worry about that, others have surmised.----------------------
Now the result is lethal. The economy's in the tank. Extra cash and operating reserves are becoming a relic of the past. Sales-tax revenue has plummeted. Income-tax figures have dropped as unemployment has risen.
TT - No mention at all about how that same Education Trust Fund has paid for "double dipping" legislators who either have financial ties to Alabama community colleges or the 13 legislators who had full-time jobs in the Legislature and were on the community college payroll, along with their relatives and friends. And no mention of the latest sentencing - that of W.L. Langston, director of Fire College.
The Alabama Press-Register (Oct. 31) said Langston "deserved his sentence" of ten years in prison.
Mr. Langston used taxpayer and Fire College money to build houses for himself and another two-year college president. He made deals to provide children of system officials with jobs that required little or no work.They said that the sentence is by far the longest handed down so far in the community college scandal, which included multiple charges filed against Bishop State employees and has ensnared high-ranking officials, rank-and-file employees and some legislators.
See TT coverage here here here
