Twenty-eight of Utah's 40 school districts will be increasing the property taxes of their residents this year. Over the coming decade, as a record number - the estimates say 145,000 - of new students try to find seats in already-overcrowded public-school classrooms, there seems to be little will to come up with any creative way to boost education funding.
Legislators the past two years refused to seriously consider a tax-reform bill sponsored by Pat Jones, D-Holladay, and Steve Mascaro, R-West Jordan, that would raise about $90 million a year for schools by eliminating the per-child tax exemptions and retooling the income-tax system.
If the 2005 Legislature also rebuffs a renewed attempt by Jones and Mascaro to get the bill passed, there will be no obvious recourse but to continue to increase property taxes, despite the hardship that puts on people living on fixed incomes. Utah schools already are struggling with the lowest per-pupil state expenditure and the largest classroom sizes in the nation.
The Legislature passed the odious tax-increase responsibility to the school districts this year to help pay for Gov. Olene Walker's badly needed early-grade reading initiative. Teaching the youngest students to read well must be a priority, but hiring specialists and tutors to get the job done is expensive.
Walker requested $30 million for the program in her state budget, but legislators cut that in half and agreed to allocate the $15 million only if districts matched it by raising taxes or pulling the funds from existing budgets.
Some districts are raising only the amount needed for the reading initiative, but others, such as Salt Lake and Jordan, are tacking on more to pay for such things as technology, transportation and some salary increases. The hikes range from $6.66 per year on a $100,000 home in the Granite District to pay for just the reading program, to $27 on a $100,000 home in the Jordan District.
Although little more than $2 per month doesn't seem like a lot, any tax increase can seriously hurt the budgets of the poor and elderly.
Legislators have a responsibility to taxpayers to give serious thought to all ideas for increasing the education budget. So far, the Jones-Mascaro bill is the only reasonable proposal they have to think about.
