Cutting Property Tax?

[enochs-fable.livejournal.com]

Deval Patrick wants to cut the property tax. Wouldn't that impact school funding, since that's where the money comes from? Can anybody cite sources in how that would work?

( if this is too off-topic, I apologize )

Comments

[chumbolly.livejournal.com]

First, I don't know beans about Mr. Patrick's tax proposal, but while it is true that school funding generally comes from property taxes, cutting property taxes will not necessarily cut school funding. Generally, proposals to cut property taxes that come from state leaders come hand in hand with increasing the amount of "state aid," or money that comes from the state's general fund (which is funded by income and business taxes and fees) to help cities and towns pay for expenditures that are made at the city and town level. Some would argue that schools shouldn't be funded primarily by the property tax because that means that towns with expensive property (Winchester, Weston, and Wellesley, really, all the "W" towns) get nice schools as a result, whereas towns with low property values, like Lynn, have very little money for schools. It's simple: poor people get poor schools and rich people get rich schools, at least in Massachusetts with it's tiny little towns that tend to consist of one income class or another (as opposed, for example, to the Los Angeles school district that covers millions of people, rich and poor). If, in the alternative, education spending comes from the state, then it can be more evenly spread amongst pupils across the state. Cambridge (with it's big commercial tax base) spends many thousands of dollars more per pupil than Somerville does. Is that fair? On the other hand, good schools are often good because the parents give a damn, and directly linking the property tax to school spending seems to strengthen the connection between the local community and its schools. I don't know which method of school funding is better, but I doubt Mr. Patrick's property tax plan would result in less school spending as it probably comes hand--in-hand with more state involvement.