COEUR d'ALENE - School officials in Kootenai County's three largest school districts reacted positively Tuesday to state public schools chief Tom Luna's proposed kindergarten- to- 12th-grade education budget for the next fiscal year.

"Hopefully, the governor and the Legislature can support these amounts," said Tom Taggart, director of business and operations in the Lakeland School District.

Luna is requesting a 5.9 percent increase in state general funds, representing a $77 million increase. The bulk of the additional funds will go toward a new teacher pay model that ties compensation to a revised state licensure system, and includes opportunities for increases based on experience and performance. The proposed budget also begins to restore some of the operational funds cut from school district budgets since 2008.

"On many of these issues it is easy for various groups to support additional funding and general concepts, but the true test will come when specific legislation is drafted," Taggart said. "It is also good to see an acknowledgment of the need to involve all parties in the discussion. This was clearly one of the major flaws with the process used to draft Student's Come First legislation."

Luna drafted the budget proposal incorporating recommendations from the state's Task Force for Improving Education, and he called for an advisory committee to work on the new "career ladder" model for teacher compensation. Coeur d'Alene School Superintendent Matt Handelman called it "fabulous news" that the state's top education official is supporting the restoration of operating funds to districts while providing better compensation for teachers. But Handelman also noted that it all rides on whether the funding will be available.

"I'm curious to see what the reaction will be some of the (suggested) funding sources," Handelman said.

Clark Corbin, of Idaho Education News, reports that Luna is suggesting the state begin collecting taxes on Internet sales, and begin taking advantage of the sale of natural resources from state lands, to fund the education budget increase.

"The biggest winners obviously would be, we hope, our local taxpayers," Handelman said, adding that increased operational funds would reduce the need for school boards to ask voters to approve supplemental maintenance and operation levies.

Post Falls Superintendent Jerry Keane said that restoring operational funding to public schools is the "highest priority" for the task force, Gov. Butch Otter and district superintendents like himself.

Today, the Post Falls district receives more than $1.6 million less than it did in fiscal year 2009, Keane said.