Finding fairer funding here- Newsday opinion editorial, August 7, 2008

Tax caps wound up causing cuts to schools in Massachusetts
BY GREG JOBIN-LEEDS| Greg Jobin-Leeds is chairman of the Schott Foundation for Public Education and vice chairman of Education Voters of America.

Newsday, August 7, 2008

As lawmakers return to Albany tomorrow, their fervor for a property tax cap should be tempered by a look at states that have already traveled this route. Repeatedly, the Massachusetts property tax cap has been held up as an example for New York. While New York’s skyrocketing property taxes must be addressed, to those of us who live in Massachusetts, claims of tax cap success contradict the truth.

I grew up on Long Island and attended public schools in Great Neck. I’ve since moved to Boston, but I recognize now - as my parents once did - that just as our schools were built by previous generations, it’s now our responsibility to ensure an excellent public school education for future generations. Without this, New York’s economic woes will only deepen.

Unfortunately, Massachusetts proves that a property tax cap - while popular - is an ineffective way either to provide tax help or to protect equitable education funding. Massachusetts’ three-decades-long experiment has exacerbated inequities in public school funding, reduced valuable local services, and increased schools’ dependence on state aid, which fluctuates with economic and political vagaries. And while the cap reined in property taxes when it was first implemented, taxes have since gone up at a rate similar to New York’s.

One of the goals of the Massachusetts cap was school cost containment. But rather than providing schools with tools to find efficiencies, a cap merely forces spending cuts. It doesn’t lower energy, transportation or health care costs. It doesn’t improve management skills, hire better personnel or innovate. Districts have been forced to make cuts to basic teaching staff in addition to art, music, athletic programs and other services provided by schools.

Moreover, Massachusetts’ cap was first implemented during an economic boom - so greater state aid could compensate for the loss of property taxes - and when the student population was waning. Instituting this cap in New York now - as the state faces an economic downturn, budgetary concerns and expanding student enrollment - would have a punishing impact on public school children.

Since the cap began, Massachusetts has seen dramatic growth in school inequity. This should be a red flag to New York, which already has one of the widest gaps between rich and poor in the nation. Wealthy communities in Massachusetts pass annual tax-cap overrides and continue to fully fund their schools. But the rest of the state cannot afford to do so and rely only on state aid.

The middle class communities in Massachusetts are the hardest hit. School budgets in these communities have grown more slowly than those in wealthy areas, which override unforgiving budgets, or than those in poor communities that are supported by targeted state aid. Middle class communities have seen their schools wither. People who have the means move to better-funded districts.

State aid can clearly ease the burden of funding education with property taxes. In New York this year, after aid was greatly increased, average property taxes fell below rates of the early 2000s. But even with the intention to increase school funding, Massachusetts has shown that aid fluctuates with economic and political realities, taking school budgets on a volatile annual roller coaster ride.

Achieving excellent education for our children and fixing unfair tax policies on working families don’t need to be conflicting priorities. New York has the benefit of being able to study Massachusetts’ mistake. The state can institute a circuit-breaker cap that provides immediate help to taxpayers based on their ability to pay. State aid could be increased proportionately to the local tax decrease. Corporate tax loopholes can be closed. Income taxes on the state’s highest earners can be increased to a fairer and more equitable rate.

There are ways to provide every child the opportunity to learn at a quality school, while protecting working families. New York can do both, if its leaders rise to this challenge responsibly and don’t succumb to political expediency.

newsday.com/news/opinion/ny-opjob075791488aug07,0,4043631.story