SLIDESHOW

Wednesday, December 22, 2010

The Tax-Cap Illusion

 
 
 
 
Come on, something has to be done to reign in uncontrolled local school district spending.....taxing locals to death is not the solution......the Times is not totally wrong......you have to treat the disease not the symptoms...but you have to start somewhere........
 
 
December 21, 2010

The Tax-Cap Illusion

At a time when Americans are feeling overburdened, capping property taxes can sound like a great idea. It certainly does to Andrew Cuomo, the governor-elect of New York. But a tax cap sounds a lot more helpful than it is. It is a blunt instrument that ends up punishing many of the taxpayers and communities in need of relief.
History shows, painfully, that caps can do more harm than good. California’s Proposition 13 led to the deterioration of universities, schools and other public facilities. Massachusetts imposed a cap in 1980 and soon police officers and firefighters were laid off and senior centers were closed. By 1991, the State Board of Education warned of a crisis with too many classrooms simply “warehousing” students.
The effects of tax caps are more powerful in bad economic times, and in poorer neighborhoods. Many tax caps — like the one in New Jersey — can be overturned by a majority of voters in a district. Richer communities tend to agree to the higher taxes, usually to improve their schools. Poorer ones more often go without. The New Jersey cap also has exemptions for health care and pensions — areas where costs are rising rapidly.
Mr. Cuomo would be the third recent New York governor who wants to limit annual increases in property taxes outside New York City. He is calling for a 2 percent cap, very limited exceptions and a requirement that 60 percent of voters agree to an increase above the cap. Like the other two governors, Mr. Cuomo is on the wrong track. What he should be worrying about are the underlying reasons that property taxes keep rising:
¶Personnel costs are skyrocketing. Outside New York City, the cost of pensions, health insurance and others benefits for workers has been increasing about 10 percent a year since 1998, according to the State Department of Education. The Legislature over the years has sweetened benefit packages as a way of rewarding teachers or other workers. Mr. Cuomo should push for regional collective bargaining instead of district by district. The goal should be pensions and health care systems for government workers that are more like those in the private sector.
¶The Legislature enjoys passing laws without giving locals the money to pay for them. Take special education, which at more than $24,000 per student is far more expensive in New York than in most other states. For years, lawmakers have added 257 additional requirements to federal disabilities laws, according to the Citizens Budget Commission. Those additions cost local districts extra, mostly for personnel. Mr. Cuomo needs to do a sweep of the extraneous mandates before imposing a tax cap on local communities.
¶There are too many separate school districts — about 700 ranging from New York City, with 1,100 teachers, to others that have fewer than 200 students. Consolidation could save money and even enhance curriculum.
¶The formulas for giving out educational funds in New York still fail to recognize that the least well-off districts need more money. The state still sends plenty of money to the public schools on Long Island, including some that are better than private academies, thanks to the rich communities around them. That leaves barely enough for the Bronx or some of the poorer, rural areas upstate.
Mr. Cuomo should address these issues first. Instead, he is focused on a tax cap. Perhaps he will change his mind when the firehouses, the police cars and — mostly — the schools start to deteriorate.

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