istrative body to be open to the press and public, unless considerations of privacy or security dictate otherwise. Committee meetings in the House and Senate have been open since 1973 and 1975, respectively. A "government in the sunshine" law signed in 1976, P.L. 94-409, applies to agencies headed by commissioners appointed by the President, thus including most of the powerful regulatory agencies. "Open record" laws require the transcripts, but not the meetings themselves, to be open to the public. At present, every state has an open meeting or an open record law.

supplemental An appropriation passed out of the normal order (1) to defray unanticipated appropriation or extraordinary expenditures, or (2) to fund activities authorized too late for the normal budgetary deadlines. Unlike continuing resolutions, supplementals are public laws and require the signature of the President-who may have requested the money.

table a measure

unanimous consent

A majority can suspend consideration of any pending measure by a motion to table. Tabling usually amounts to a final and adverse disposition of a bill. When a measure is tabled, a vote of two-thirds is required to return it to the floor. An amendment may be tabled without prejudice to the bill itself. Tabling may also take place in committee, with the same fatal effect. The Senate allows a motion to “lay on the table," a less drastic action which has the effect of preserving the bill for later consideration.

In either house, noncontroversial motions, amendments or bills may be passed without a vote if no member raises an objection from the floor. "Without objection" is a synonym for unanimous consent. The same practice exists in committee deliberations.

United States Code An official compilation of the permanent and general laws of the United States, codified under 50 titles. The first six deal with general and political matters. The remaining 44 are alphabetized from Agriculture to War. The Code is supplemented after each session of Congress and revised every six years. The privately-distributed United States Code Annotated combines the same statutory materials with historical notes, court decisions and rulings of the Attorney General.

upper and lower houses

The Senate and the House of Representatives, respectively. Inasmuch as the houses of Congress are equal in dignity and in their ability to initiate, debate and act upon legislation, many authorities consider it improper to refer to them as "upper" and "lower" houses, particularly since their members are now elected by the same body of voters, without regard to social or other distinctions. The authors of the Constitution apparently relied on the Senate, stable and propertied, to curb the democratic ebullience of the House-but that was then.

veto The right of the President to return a bill or joint resolution unsigned to the house of origin, with a written statement of his objections to it, within ten days of its delivery to him after passage by Congress, thereby preventing it from becoming law unless it can be re-passed over his veto. The ten-day period excludes Sundays and national holidays, but not Saturdays.

veto override If the President returns a bill unsigned and with objections stated in writing within ten days of its delivery to him, it does not become law unless Congress can re-pass it with a recorded vote of two-thirds (of a quorum) in both houses. The bill is sent by the President to the house in which it originated. Privileged, it is voted upon immediately and, if the requisite vote is ob

tained, is referred to the other house for its action. If not successful in both houses, the bill is dead.

voting procedures The House now uses three methods for taking votes on the floor. In committee, voting practices are limited, usually, to voice votes and roll calls. According to most committee rules, roll call or recorded votes may be demanded by any member. The voting procedures used by the House are as follows:

(1) Voice votes are the most frequent. All those in favor answer “aye,” in chorus, followed by the "no" votes, also in unison. The presiding officer decides "by ear."

(2) If any member thinks the Speaker has erred in judging a voice vote, he may demand a standing vote, technically known as a "division of the House." All in favor, and then all opposed, stand and are counted by the Clerk.

(3) A roll call vote, also known as a recorded vote, may be demanded by one-fifth of the members present (at least 44).

whip The whips serve as first assistants to the majority and minority leaders in both houses. Along with other duties, they remind members to be present for votes, arrange pairs, conciliate disaffected members and keep the leadership informed about the attitudes of the rank and file. In today's House and Senate, the whips offices have important information functions, issuing notices, schedules and policy materials to the members of their parties. In the House, the Majority Whip has the assistance of three deputy whips. zero-base Experience shows that the natural tendency of bureaucracies is to persist, budgeting and that change in bureaucratic structures, to the extent that it happens at all, takes the form of growth and expansion, with each year's budget request adding something to the past year's expenditure level. Very often, this takes place without any real changes in an agency's services, either in kind or quality.

Zero-base budgeting proposes to attack the problem of bureaucratic expansion by forcing each agency of government to come before the appropriate legislative body and justify its entire existence, not merely its proposed increase for the coming year. At this point, each agency would start over at the beginning, or "zero base," with no certainty of continuation on any level.

Most federal zero-base proposals call for program review by functional areas, such as education, welfare or law enforcement, so that Congress will be able to compare and eliminate programs that are duplicative, obsolete, inactive or ineffective according to their own missions and priorities. Review, according to most proposals, would take place according to a cycle of five years or more.

SCHOOL FINANCE AND TAX TERMS

These are a number of tax, education and statistical terms that are used in school finance research and policy analysis.

ADA, ADM ADA is an abbreviation for student average daily attendance and ADM is an abbreviation for student average daily membership. ADA and ADM are the official measures that most states use to represent the number of students in a school district for the purpose of calculating state aid. ADA is always less than ADM.

assessment ratios The assessed valuation of property in most states is usually less than the market value of the property. In other words, owners are able to sell property for a price higher than the assessed valuation of that property. Although most states have a legal standard at which all property should be assessed, assessed valuations are usually below even the legal level and may vary widely among jurisdictions in a state. The actual assessment level or assessment ratio is determined by comparing actual assessed valuations to market values.

assessed valuation The assessed valuation is the total value of property, subject to the property tax in a school district. Usually, it is established by a local government officer and is only a percentage of the market value of the property.

categorical Categorical programs refer to state aid that is designed for specific proprograms grams. Examples would be transportation aid, special education aid and aid for adult education and vocational education. Equalization formula aid is not an example of categorical aid. Formula funds provide general aid that can be used for any purpose.

current operating

Current operating expenditures include education expenditures for the daily expenditures operation of the school program such as expenditures for administration, instruction, attendance and health services, transportation, operation and maintenance of plant and fixed charges.

district power District power equalization (DPE) refers to a state equalization aid program equalization that "equalizes" the ability of each school district to raise dollars for education. In a pure DPE program, the state guarantees to both propertypoor and property-rich school districts the same dollar yield for the same property tax rate.

equalization Equalization formula aid is financial assistance given by a higher-level govformula aid ernment the state to a lower-level government-school districts-to equalize the fiscal situation of the lower-level government. Because school districts vary in their abilities to raise property tax dollars, equalization formula aid is allocated to make the ability to raise such local funds more nearly equal. In general, equalization formula aid increases as the per-pupil property wealth of a school district decreases.

flat grant program

A flat grant program simply allocates an equal sum of dollars to each public school pupil in the state. A flat grant is not an equalization aid program because it allocates the same dollars per pupil regardless of the property

foundation program

full-state assumption

median family
income

progressive tax

or income wealth of the local school districts. However, if no local dollars are raised for education and all school dollars come from the state, a flatgrant program becomes equivalent to full-state assumption.

A foundation program is a state equalization aid program that typically guarantees a certain foundation level of expenditure for each student, together with a minimum tax rate that each school district must levy for education purposes. The difference between what a local school district raises at the minimum tax rate and the foundation expenditure is made up in state aid.

Full-state assumption (FSA) is a school finance program in which the state pays for all education costs and sets equal per-pupil expenditures in all school districts. FSA would satisfy the "uniformity" standard of equity. Only in Hawaii has the state government fully assumed most of the costs of public education.

Median family income usually is that reported in the U.S. Census. It reflects income. If the income of all families in a school district were rank ordered, the median income would be the income of the family midway between the lowest and the highest income families.

A progressive tax is a tax that increases proportionately more than income as the income level of the taxpayer increases. Under a progressive tax highincome taxpayers will pay a larger percent of their incomes toward this tax than low-income taxpayers.

proportional tax A proportional tax is a tax that consumes the same percent of family income at all income levels.

regressive tax

revenue gap

school district tax rate

state aid for current operating expenses

A regressive tax is a tax that increases proportionately less than income as the income level of the taxpayer increases. Under a regressive tax lowincome taxpayers will pay a larger percent of their incomes toward this tax than high-income taxpayers.

A revenue gap exists when projected expenditures exceed projected tax revenues. Although revenue gaps usually are not allowed to exist in fact for current fiscal years, of importance are the projected values. If revenue gaps are projected, tax rate increases of expenditure cuts, both politically difficult, will be required.

School district tax rate is the term states use to indicate the local school property tax rate. The tax rate often is stated as the amount of property tax dollars to be paid for each $100 of assessed valuation or, if given in mills, the rate indicates how much is raised for each $1000 of assessed valuation. For example, a tax rate of $1.60 per hundred dollars of assessed valuation means that a taxpayer pays $1.60 for each $100 of his or her total assessed valuation; a tax rate of 16 mills indicates that $16 must be paid for each $1000 of assessed valuation.

State aid for current operating expenses is the sum of the equalization formula aid and categorical aid for vocational education, adult education, special education, bilingual education, transportation and other categorical aid programs.