Jay Evensen
  • Front Page
  • Opinions
  • Second Thoughts
  • Portfolio
  • Awards
  • About

Utah education's big ballot box risk for 2018

3/6/2018

0 Comments

 
Picture
Of all the predictions surrounding the Our Schools Now initiative that once hoped to put a tax increase for education on your ballot in November, one seems to have sticking power.

It goes like this: If voters were to reject it, public schools would be worse off than if the initiative never had been started. Lawmakers might feel emboldened to ignore future calls for increases in school funding. After all, the people would have spoken.
That’s the nature of initiatives, and it’s a central reason why they can be bad for democracies. Somebody sets an arbitrary figure for a tax increase and everyone gets to vote yes or no. Perhaps it fails when an increase half or even three-quarters as large would have passed.

The back and forth of legislative law-making — even in a Legislature dominated by one party, such as Utah’s — serves the public’s interest much better.

But if Our Schools Now accepts something like the proposal lawmakers were talking about Monday — drop the initiative in favor of a public vote on a 10-cent gas tax increase and a freeze on property tax rates — the basic risk remains.

If voters reject 10 cents extra for gas, that also could be seen as a rejection of the notion that Utahns want to give lots more money to schools. You might even say the risk of losing such a measure would be higher than voting on a straight tax hike for schools. Tying it to something else Utahns struggle with in their personal budgets — the cost of driving a car — complicates things.

The vote, at least as it stood Monday, would be nonbinding. It might, however, be psychologically binding on all concerned.

But let’s read between the lines. That Our Schools Now would be willing to accept such a compromise seems to indicate the initiative is not getting the traction its organizers had hoped. A recent poll commissioned by Utahpolicy.com showed 54 percent of Utahns favored it, which is not too far statistically from the 50 percent in a poll last November, with a margin of error of 4 percent. That’s tepid support this far from Election Day.

What about freezing the basic property tax rate, which applies to schools?

Property taxes are unpopular, and this would put at risk a system that has kept a downward pressure on those rates for years.

The Utah Foundation reports Utah’s property tax burden is the 34th highest in the nation. The reason it isn’t higher is that lawmakers long ago passed a law known as Truth-in-Taxation.

Under that system, local governments may not collect more in property taxes than they did the previous year, other than to account for growth within their boundaries, without calling it a tax increase and holding hearings. If real estate values appreciate, property tax rates must be lowered to compensate. If the market is bad, rates can go up.

In 1996, lawmakers decided to apply this rule to the basic levy for schools, as well. The results have been dramatic.

According to figures provided by the Utah Foundation, in 1995 the rate was about 26 percent. Since then, it has pushed steadily downward to about 15 percent. But freezing it there would mean you would have to pay more as the value of your house increased.

And as complicated as property tax forms are, the average Utahn wouldn’t know whom to blame.

Of course, all of this could change by the time you read this. The last days of the annual legislative session are hectic. But some sort of compromise to diffuse Our Schools Now seems inevitable, as does the idea that schools would receive less of an increase than the initiative asked for.

Why did the initiative fail to generate enthusiastic support? For one thing, it wasn’t specific enough. Organizers never said how the tax hikes they proposed were going to be spent. If the funds were earmarked for at-risk students or underfunded districts, it might have been more palatable than simply spreading it evenly.
​
Then again, maybe Utahns, ever suspicious of taxes and government spending, don’t see tax hikes alone as the answer. Maybe they would like educators and politicians to be more innovative than that.
0 Comments

Your comment will be posted after it is approved.


Leave a Reply.

    RSS Feed

    Search this site


    Like what you read here?

      Please subscribe below, and we'll let you know when there is a new opinion.

    Enter your email address:

    Delivered by FeedBurner

    Picture

    The author

    Jay Evensen is the Senior Editorial Columnist of the Deseret News. He has nearly 40 years experience as a reporter, editor and editorial writer in Oklahoma, New York City, Las Vegas and Salt Lake City. He also has been an adjunct journalism professor at Brigham Young and Weber State universities.

    Archives

    June 2021
    May 2021
    April 2021
    March 2021
    February 2021
    January 2021
    December 2020
    November 2020
    October 2020
    September 2020
    August 2020
    July 2020
    June 2020
    May 2020
    April 2020
    March 2020
    February 2020
    January 2020
    December 2019
    November 2019
    October 2019
    September 2019
    August 2019
    July 2019
    June 2019
    May 2019
    April 2019
    March 2019
    February 2019
    January 2019
    December 2018
    November 2018
    October 2018
    September 2018
    August 2018
    July 2018
    June 2018
    May 2018
    April 2018
    March 2018
    February 2018
    January 2018
    December 2017
    November 2017
    October 2017
    September 2017
    August 2017
    July 2017
    June 2017
    May 2017
    April 2017
    March 2017
    February 2017
    January 2017
    December 2016
    November 2016
    October 2016
    September 2016
    August 2016
    July 2016
    June 2016
    May 2016
    April 2016
    March 2016
    February 2016
    January 2016
    December 2015
    November 2015
    October 2015
    September 2015
    August 2015
    July 2015
    June 2015
    May 2015
    April 2015
    March 2015
    February 2015
    January 2015
    December 2014
    November 2014
    October 2014
    September 2014
    August 2014
    July 2014
    June 2014
    May 2014
    April 2014
    March 2014
    February 2014
    January 2014
    December 2013
    November 2013
    October 2013
    September 2013
    August 2013
    July 2013
    June 2013
    May 2013
    April 2013
    March 2013
    February 2013
    January 2013
    December 2012
    November 2012
    October 2012
    September 2012
    August 2012
    July 2012
    June 2012

    Categories

    All
    Campaign 2012
    Congress
    Crime
    Culture
    Iran
    Oil And Gas
    Poverty
    Steroids
    Taxes
    Utah
    Washington
    World Events
    World Events

    Links

    Deseret News
    Newslink
    Marianne Evensen's blog

Powered by Create your own unique website with customizable templates.