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An end to the overreliance on local property taxes? Not any time soon
Published on Sunday, May 03, 2009
That said, school districts across the state still face an extremely difficult financial burden. They remain on a levy treadmill, forced to go back to local voters again and again to approve property-tax levies. The budget bill anticipates a 10-year phase-in for school-funding reform, a full decade before revenue from the state matches the important goal of making sure children across the state have a chance to succeed, even if growing up in modest circumstances.
And that claim requires a leap of faith, many rightly skeptical about the state's commitment.
The immediate worry is that $845 billion in one-time money from the federal stimulus package is shoring up the schools in the next two-year budget cycle. For the biennium after that, no such boost will be coming from Washington.
Ohio's levy treadmill is the product of House Bill 920. The outdated approach of the measure, passed in the 1970s, reduces millage as property values rise, leaving districts to compensate for the effects of inflation by returning to the voters. Few understand the mechanism. Many assume spending must be out of whack, and vote accordingly.
Strickland has proposed a new kind of tax levy, called a conversion levy. Districts passing such a levy would lock in an effective rate of 20 mills. Anything above that would generate additional tax revenues as property values rise. The approach would negate (somewhat) House Bill 920. The concern is, conversion levies will generate more confusion for voters. History clearly shows that when voters have doubts, levies die at the polls.
The overall approach to school-funding reform in the House budget bill, based on Strickland's evidence-driven proposal, is a promising one. Without a solid educational system, the state economy will slip further behind. Yet a system on the levy treadmill cannot deliver what Ohio needs.
Get the full article here.
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