Latest TABOR Plan Would Cause Even More Severe Financial Damage to Schools, According to Non-Partisan Legislative Report
The latest version of the so-called Taxpayer Bill of Rights (TABOR) would cause even more severe financial damage to school districts than education caps, according to an analysis by the non-partisan Legislative Fiscal Bureau released Monday (March 13, 2006).
School districts, which are struggling under education caps to meet the basic academic needs of students, would have had even less money - an estimated $115.9 million less - in 2003-04 if the Taxpayer Protection Act had been in effect, according to the Fiscal Bureau. That amounts to 3.2% less for just that one year.
In addition, the Fiscal Bureau analysis shows that the state would have been prevented from raising close to $2 billion for public programs and services over the last 20 years if the caps in the TPA had been in place.
WEAC President Stan Johnson called TABOR “reckless fiscal policy” and said the hypothetical cuts the Fiscal Bureau analysis revealed would have denied educational opportunities to countless children and placed the state’s economic future in jeopardy.
Johnson said TABOR would be even more harmful if it were to go into effect now.
“The impact of such a law would be even worse today, when we know great schools are more important than ever for preparing the next generation for the jobs of the future in the global economy,” Johnson said.
A recent survey of school superintendents by WEAC and the Wisconsin Association of School District Administrators documented the profoundly negative effects caused by the state-imposed education caps great schools are already living under.
Overall, 62% of districts say they offer fewer courses because of education caps; 70% laid off teachers; 65% laid off support staff; 70% increased class sizes; 65% increased student fees; 61% reduced programs for gifted and talented students; 53% reduced extracurricular programs; and 53% reduced programs for at-risk students.
While the severity of the latest TABOR proposal would vary from school district to school district, no district would be allowed to raise more under TABOR than it would under the current education caps, and most would be forced to abide by even lower limits.
“The Taxpayer Protection Amendment would be even more punitive than local school district revenue caps because school revenue would be limited to the lesser of the two,” said Wisconsin Department of Public Instruction spokesman Joe Donovan. (A March 17, 2006, Legislative Fiscal Bureau memo to Senator Judy Robson confirms that the state could enforce whichever limit places the toughest restrictions on a school district's revenues.)
The Fiscal Bureau report shows there would be about 4% less in potential revenue every year, in both state and local taxes, if the latest TABOR proposal were already law. The proposed amendment limits overall annual state revenues, using a flawed formula tied to the inflation rate, the state's personal income, population growth and new construction.
State Budget Director Dave Schmiedicke told the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel the analysis still does not tell the whole story.
"Clearly, the impact would be devastating on schools and on the affordability of University of Wisconsin students," said Schmiedicke. "Tough decisions need to be made, and this isn't the substitute for that."
With revenue limits written into the Wisconsin Constitution, state officials would have less responsibility for making hard choices about which programs deserve funding and which warrant elimination or reduction, Schmiedicke said.
Johnson agreed.
“If you are elected to the state Legislature you are elected to make tough decisions, explain those decisions, and face the consequences,” Johnson said. “You do not tamper with the Constitution so you can distance yourself from all the negative impacts of your decision when re-election time comes around. That is the opposite of what it means to be a statesman or a stateswoman.”
In other critical areas, the report says municipalities would have had a loss of revenue of about $136.4 million in 2004 if the amendment had been in place, and counties would have lost about $13.45 million.
State Rep. Jon Richards (D-Milwaukee), the Assembly's assistant minority leader, told the Journal Sentinel the amendment is "a dangerous gimmick" that could lead to harmful program cuts.
Richards said the proposal’s backers could lower spending without TABOR if that is what they really wanted to do.
“The people that were pushing this are the people who have been in control (in the Legislature) for the last 10 years,” Richards said.
State constitutional amendments must be approved by two successive sessions of the Legislature before they go to the voters.
The Assembly and Senate are expected to take their first votes on the amendment in April or May.
The complete analysis (pdf file)
OnWEAC Resource Page on Tax Gimmicks
Posted March 17, 2006