But Senate Bill 48 is not the way to do it.
Capital spending equalization is a long-standing issue given renewed import last year when voters in five east-side cities in Salt Lake County opted to create their own school district. The new district, with fewer than half the students of the former Jordan School District, will take more than half of Jordan's tax base. So the forbidding cost of new schools needed in fast-growing west-side communities was left to taxpayers in what remains of the old district.
SB48 and House Bill 383 offer different solutions. SB48 would lower some property taxes by taking $28.7 million in income tax revenue from the Uniform School Fund - a hefty hit to education programs - and distributing it to districts with small tax bases and high property tax rates. Districts would have to lower their property tax revenue an equal amount to get the money.
To end up with a net revenue increase, the districts could keep their property tax rate the same, but would have to hold a Truth in Taxation hearing, or they could raise property taxes later on. An added provision of SB48 targets only Salt Lake County districts, requiring those with larger tax bases to contribute to an equalization fund to help districts that meet growth and enrollment criteria. Under this formula, all Salt Lake districts would be losers except west-side Jordan.
HB48 attacks the problem with too many weapons - a statewide plan that lowers property taxes, and a pure equalization plan that would raise taxes, but only for most districts in Salt Lake County. And it fails to fairly distribute the burden among the state's 40 districts, which should be the goal.
House Bill 383 comes closer, without taking cash from the state education fund. It would include districts in first- through third-class counties in a broader equalization plan. Although there would be losers and winners, we see this scheme as more fair if it were applied statewide.
SB48 would rob education programs funded by the Uniform School Fund and would unreasonably single out Salt Lake County when revenue-sharing should involve all districts in Utah.
