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Friday, May 20, 2005
Savage Inequalities
Yesterday's lead story in the News-Gazette, "Thousands Rally for Reform" touched on some important educational issues here in the State. It seems Senators Winkel (R-Urbana) and Meeks (I-Chicago) are proposing the following:
The legislation would increase the personal income tax from 3 percent to 5 percent and raise the corporate income tax rate from 4.8 percent to 8 percent, raising a projected $5.8 billion a year.Note the third paragraph of this quote: per pupil spending in this state averages $5000 a year, which ranks Illinois 48th in the percentage of funding the state provides for education. But even this number is misleading. In actuality, spending in the state ranges from a low of $4000 a year in some downstate districts to a high of $18,000 a year in suburban Chicago (Urbana's rate is around $7200). Illinois actually ranks 49th in the nation in the size of the per-pupil spending gap between wealthy and poor school districts. All of which makes Winkel's legislation seem like a pretty good idea. Since the current funding system relies heavily on property taxes, districts like 214 in suburban Chicago can afford high tech computer labs, PhDs who oversee departments but don't actually teach, and budget surpluses up to $40 million. Meanwhile districts in, say, the East St. Louis area continue to struggle just to keep the lights on. So what to do? HB755 is a good start. Educators have long advocated a move away from property tax-based funding, and this is a way to make it happen. This legislation will also increase the amount of money going into Illinois schools, helping us move out of the national basement. But passage is not guaranteed, and the Governor, in another hair-brained move, has vowed to veto any income tax increases (even if they are offset by a reduction in property taxes, apparently). Action needs to be taken. I urge you to write (207 State Capitol Bldg. Springfield, IL 62706), email (governor@state.il.us), or call (217-782-6830) the Governor and tell him where you stand on this issue. Though he has taken significant steps to increase education funding in this state over the last two years, it is a systematic reform that is needed. Let the man know where you stand. Finally, a quote from Jonathan Kozol's Savage Inequalities to hopefully give us some perspective: Anyone who visits in the schools of East St. Louis, even for a short time, comes away profoundly shaken. These are innocent children, after all. They have done nothing wrong. They have committed no crime. They are too young to have offended us in any way at all. One searches for some way to understand why a society as rich and, frequently, as generous as ours would leave these children in their penury and squalor for so long -- and with so little public indignation. Is this just a strange mistake of history? Is it unusual? Is it an American anomaly? [...]What do you believe about equality? Contact the Governor.  
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6 Comments:
Does this mean you'll be voting for Winkel in 2006? :-)
It depends on who opposes him. I'll vote for any politician who attempts to shift the tax burden off of the working class and onto the business class. Though the income tax ideas in this legislation are a bit troubling, I think they are offset by the increase in the corporate tax rate.
Thanks for the clarification on the average spending per pupil - my mistake, and I'm glad you clarified it.
I'd be careful before judging DC too harshly. Remember these are averages. Just as DC has some of the worst schools in the nation, it also has some of the best. New York State is the same story - inequalities that are simply savage (imo).
There are other issues at play here - districts like 214 have incredibly high property tax rates, often just to pay for their increased infrastructure and their schools. Folks who lived in these areas for years are forced out, or are made to pay these high rates. Localized property taxes are not an equitable system for the state as a whole, and also for the citizens of a district.
But we agree that something must be done - especially in the poor districts. In my opinion, these areas should have the best schools in the state because the kids need them the most. How you make that work for suburban voters is a mystery, however, and something I'm sure make Gov. Blago lose sleep at night.
Or not.
Hate to disillusion you, but the so-called tax swap bills Ralph Martire has been promoting shift the tax burden from business to individuals.
The reason is pretty straight-forward.
Business pays somewhere in the 40-50% range of property taxes. I think the corporate income tax brings in about 12% of the total income tax.
A shift that includes business does not bode well for individuals.
There is a way to construct a shift that would not benefit business. I did so in a bill I introduced in 1979 or so.
It would have been on a school district by school district basis, requiring passage of a refendum. Petitioners would have been able to select a local income tax rate to be imposed. If passed, the amount raised would have been used to abate the residential real estate portion of the school district's property tax bill.
I guarantee it would be a hotly debated proposal once on the ballot. I could figure no way to guarantee that landlords would pass on the tax savings, for instance. The current proposal has the same problem, I would note.
Also, I couldn't think of a way to even out income tax collections over time, so property tax bills would be down the year after good economic times, but up the year after a recession started.
That's just a beginning of the pros and cons of a straight tax swap idea.
Martire's, of course, was not a straight swap. It was a net tax hike that the Chicago Tribune estimated would increase people's
combined tax burden by 20%.
I'll see if I can pull the url of the tax calculator the Tribune posted on its web site.
http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/local/chi-050518tax-db,1,4882829.formprofile?coll=chi-news-hed
That's the place to go to find out what will HB 755 would do to the average taxpayer in a given zip code.
The question about inequities is a separate one, in my opinion. If that's really what Martire and company wanted to achieve, a way could probably be designed to achieve it.
I thought I was voting for such a proposal in 1973 when the resource equalizer state aid to education forumula was passed. The same complaint about inequities was being made then as is being made now.
Over the years, however, the better off school districts refused to lower their property taxes. Hold harmless clauses kept money where it already was, leading, I believe, to the inequities that are documented today.
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