[Grovenet] SDC's & schools - Was: "economic cancer"?/now govt saving money

[Dick La Jeunesse]

Guess I failed to make the simple point I had hoped to in the first post.

1. You can't raise enough money with SDC's to build schools.  You can't even 
come close.  Bond levies are just fine for that purpose.


As for the operating revenue, I have never advocated for higher taxes to pay 
for education.  Schools could get by with what the State gets today - IF 
they could count on a reasonable share of it.  I advocate for stable, 
predictable funding, removed from the political whims of the moment.  I have 
always and only called for a fixed percentage of the State general fund to 
be allocated - up, or down from previous years.  This would allow districts 
to use actual tax revenue data to plan, budget and use contingency funding 
instead of waiting until July when the politicians finally get around to 
passing a budget.

This type of funding, coupled with the removal of special funding privileges 
for Portland in the funding formula, would get us much closer to true equity 
and stability.  Schools would make do.

I happen to agree with you about the shameful shift of tax burden away from 
corporations to individuals, but schools have only been used as a stalking 
horse for that mess, too.  M5 changed the school funding sources by putting 
them in the hands of the State to provide equity among districts (as 
required by the US Supreme Court in 1973).

The property tax limitation provision of M5 was tacked on as a "gift" from 
Sizemore and the Prop 13 crowd in California.  There was nothing to prevent 
the State from collecting property taxes and redistributing them to schools 
more equitably, but the pols get a lot more clout by holding schools hostage 
to their own special interests by shaping the general fund.

Now, we can watch the D's take their turn at the funding/taxing trough - 
using the same threats to school funding.  Oh, I know, let's build some more 
casinos.  How about more sin taxes like Lust, Gluttony, Greed, Sloth, Wrath, 
Envy and Pride?  Can you spell s-a-l-e-s t-a-x?

And then we have the DC crowd and their legacy of "no child left" in public 
schools.  Ugh.

Frankly, I don't trust or respect either party, State or Feds, when it comes 
to funding education.  IMHO, they have all failed us miserably.

But then, I don't feel strongly about this.

:-)

>From: Meredith Bliss <mbliss at agora.rdrop.com>
>Reply-To: Forest Grove local interests list <grovenet at rdrop.com>
>To: Forest Grove local interests list <grovenet at rdrop.com>
>Subject: Re: [Grovenet] Was: "economic cancer"?/now govt saving money
>Date: Sat, 05 May 2007 14:19:33 -0700
>
>On May 4, 2007, at 2:34 PM, Dick La Jeunesse wrote:
><much deleted/>
> > > Property taxes were the most effective way to fund schools until
> > > they were made impractical by the Supreme Court ruling in 1973
> > > banning inequitable funding of school districts.
>
>And to which David Morelli replied
>On Friday 04 May 2007 21:02, David Morelli wrote:
>
> > Great.  It is a separate issue from funding capital expenditures
> > using SDC's, but how do we fund education?  Are you proposing higher
> > income taxes, so that the state general fund pays?
> >
> > David
>
>Excellent reply, as always David, saved me the effort. But I'm surprised 
>you
>passed up this last point. I can't see the '73 decision requiring funding
>equity having much impact except in relation to Measue 5 (1980 or so?) that
>limited property tax support for education to $5 per 1,000 and requiring 
>the
>state general fund (mostly personal income tax) to make up the difference.
>And then, of course, came a lot of other tax limitations from the R's to
>effectively shift the burden of income taxes from corporations to
>individuals, thus insuring maximum competition for a dwindling.general fund
>and a disinvestment in higher education (they just don't seem to be able to
>squeak loudly enough).
>
>
>----------------------------------------
>Just happy to be here, but speaking
>only for myself!
>Meredith Bliss --- www.rdrop.com/~mbliss
>----------------------------------------
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