‘Local option’ property tax plan dooms equity

“My concern is if we do this, all the senators from Charleston and the other counties that are clamoring for property tax relief will forever after vote against equitable funding for schools. I think this is the most dangerous amendment we have ever had before us.”

— Sen. Linda Short

TODAY, THE SENATE is set to vote on a plan to give each county the option of increasing its sales tax in order to eliminate the residential and automobile property taxes that pay for schools.

Few senators actually like the plan. But it has broad support — it is sponsored by 26 of the Senate’s 46 members, from both parties — because senators have been unable to agree on any other way to meet vocal demands for property tax cuts, and they aren’t willing to ignore those demands.

Most senators see the local option plan as a “do no harm” option.

They are wrong. Terribly wrong. As Sen. Short pointed out Wednesday afternoon, this is a proposal that will do terrible harm to our state — not so much for what it does, but for what it virtually guarantees will not be done if it passes.

The amendment itself has a host of problems, from the cap it imposes on remaining school property taxes in the counties that approve the local option to a circuit-breaker that would force people in the counties that adopt the higher sales tax to pay for a more limited property tax relief to some people in the counties that don’t increase the sales tax.

But those are troubling details, which could be fixed by subsequent amendments. What makes the usually sensible idea of giving more taxing options to local communities so dangerous in this case is that it would satisfy the public demand for relief on property taxes that go to schools without doing anything to improve the way the state pays for public education. And fixing that problem is far more important even than reducing the property taxes of that tiny portion of the public that actually is burdened by them.

You know why our state lags economically? Because we don’t offer every child a real chance for a good education. A child unfortunate enough to have been born into a poor school district won’t get the same quality of teachers and textbooks and enrichment programs as a child born into a wealthy district. And if kids aren’t educated, they can’t get good jobs, and companies won’t bring good jobs to our state. Everyone suffers.

The state makes some, but not enough, efforts to correct the inequity, through formulas that send some additional money to poorer districts. Yet even though most senators acknowledge the problem, they had never even talked about fixing it until the past week, when it was brought up as a part of a proposal to reduce property taxes. As Sen. Brad Hutto warned Tuesday: “If you don’t vote for school reform in the context of property tax reform, then we’re not going to get it.” That is an appropriate reproach to his fellow Democrats who rejected a proposal by Republican Sen. Larry Grooms that actually addressed the problem.

Anyone who votes for property tax relief that does not include school funding reform is dooming poor districts to years more of inequitable and inadequate funding. That condemns our entire state to continued poverty and economic stagnation.