For the current fiscal year the Educator Compensation Act of 2001 (Act 1456 of 2001) required school districts to provide no less than a $1,000, excluding benefits and employer contributions to teacher retirement and social security, over a targeted educator’s salary for fiscal year 2001.
By authority of the Revenue Stabilization Act (Ark. Code Ann. §§ 19-5-101, et seq. (Supp. 2001)), the Department of Finance and Administration has reduced the Revenue Forecast by $142,000,000 for net general revenues available for distribution. Under the provisions of the Revenue Stabilization Act, this will cause a reduction to the public school fund of $54,446,571. Under the authority of 2001 Acts No. 1667, Section 13, State Equalization Aid may be reduced by $44,239,585 below the $1,482,875,000 base established in Act 1667 of 2001.
Under the authority of the same Act, Section 20, the Department of Education shall inform school districts of the new required salary increase as soon as the Department of Education has determined to reduce State Equalization Funding. On November 19, 2001, the Arkansas State Board of Education approved a reduction in the budget for State Equalization Aid to the minimum amount established by law.
Therefore, the required salary increase mandated by the Educator Compensation Act of 2001 (Ark. Code Ann. §§ 6-17-2101, et seq. (Supp. 2001)) for Fiscal Year 2002 shall be zero dollars ($0.00).