Wednesday, December 27, 2006
Taxation in Bethlehem & Illinois
Considering the Christmas story starts with taxation, perhaps I should not criticize the Chicago Tribune for running Diane Rado’s Christmas Day story headlined,
I didn’t, as you can see from the date this is posted.
Of course, the Tribune didn’t think the tax hike threat was as important as U.S. Senator Barack Obama’s hiring a contributor’s kid as an intern, but such are the news judgments of Tribune editors.
The tax hikers have managed to convince even a savvy reporter like Rado to call them “tax reformers.”
And, doesn’t it figure that a Republican state representative (Robert Pritchard of Hinckley) is “a former school board member and chief organizer of the education causes?”
I see Hinckley is in DeKalb County. I suggest Rep. Pritchard might want to type his zip code into this tax calculator that Rado worked up. (If the link doesn't work, tell me in a comment what your zip code is and I'll post the results.)
Just in case Rep. Pritchard doesn’t want to go to the link in the above paragraph, I have copied what the tax calculator says will happen to the tax bill of the average taxpayer in Hinckley, if Senate Bill 750 became law.
It shows a net income tax increase of 13% for Hinckley taxpayers. The dollar increase is estimated to be $728.
Rado reports that one of the caucus’ main goals is to reduce reliance on local taxes for schools.
I guess the education caucus members don’t understand that he who supplies the gold rules.
Kudos to Rado for pointing out—one of the rare times print reporters have done so—that increasing the state income tax rate from 3 to 5 percentage points is a 66 percent hike (actually, it rounds to 67%).
And our hero?
Governor Rod Blagojevich is about all we have.
No Republican is quoted as being against tax hikes. Good thing she or Ray Long, who assisted with the article, didn't call Jim Edgar. Thanks to Bill Barr for pointing out his continuing role as cheerleader for higher taxes.
Doesn’t that make you feel all warm and fuzzy?
Well, maybe fuzzy.
Income tax hike in play for schoolswith a subhead reading
Bipartisan caucus faces tough battle with BlagojevichStill, must we think of taxes on Christmas?
I didn’t, as you can see from the date this is posted.
Of course, the Tribune didn’t think the tax hike threat was as important as U.S. Senator Barack Obama’s hiring a contributor’s kid as an intern, but such are the news judgments of Tribune editors.
The tax hikers have managed to convince even a savvy reporter like Rado to call them “tax reformers.”
And, doesn’t it figure that a Republican state representative (Robert Pritchard of Hinckley) is “a former school board member and chief organizer of the education causes?”
I see Hinckley is in DeKalb County. I suggest Rep. Pritchard might want to type his zip code into this tax calculator that Rado worked up. (If the link doesn't work, tell me in a comment what your zip code is and I'll post the results.)Just in case Rep. Pritchard doesn’t want to go to the link in the above paragraph, I have copied what the tax calculator says will happen to the tax bill of the average taxpayer in Hinckley, if Senate Bill 750 became law.
It shows a net income tax increase of 13% for Hinckley taxpayers. The dollar increase is estimated to be $728.
Rado reports that one of the caucus’ main goals is to reduce reliance on local taxes for schools.
I guess the education caucus members don’t understand that he who supplies the gold rules.
Kudos to Rado for pointing out—one of the rare times print reporters have done so—that increasing the state income tax rate from 3 to 5 percentage points is a 66 percent hike (actually, it rounds to 67%).
And our hero?
Governor Rod Blagojevich is about all we have.
No Republican is quoted as being against tax hikes. Good thing she or Ray Long, who assisted with the article, didn't call Jim Edgar. Thanks to Bill Barr for pointing out his continuing role as cheerleader for higher taxes.
Doesn’t that make you feel all warm and fuzzy?
Well, maybe fuzzy.
Labels: Barack Obama, Diane Rado, Income Tax Hike, Robert Pritchard, Rod Blagojevich, SB 750, Senate Bill 750, Tax Calculator
Comments:
<< Home
Here's a naive question . . . welcoming any response. Has anyone looked at successful states where the test scores are good/above average and at the same time both the state and local property taxes are within reason? How did that state or states accomplish this? Do they have a teachers' union? Are they a red or blue state? Do they have suggestions for Illinois?
That is an excellent question that I wish I could give you an excellent answer. It would be nice if our legislators looked at effective programs that work in other states (for example, vouchers in Milwaukee, Cleveland, ... that produce not only better scores for the students attending alternate schools but the public schools also improved as a result of competition for student funding).
Instead our legislators work to enact the "tax swap" which failed miserably in New Jersey and Michigan.
It would be nice if legislators looked at school districts in Illinois that have above average test scores while frugally spending taxpayer money. Would it surprise you to learn that the unit school district with the lowest property tax rate of only 2.048% (Hardin County Unit District, latest published tax rates are from 2003 and spending figures from fiscal year 2005) had an equalized assessed valuation of only $32,251 per student? (In comparison District 300 has an equalized assessed valuation of $143,809 per student and tax rate of 3.8656% plus whatever the passed referenda add to the tax rate). With the stronger tax base, District 300 spent $8,048 per student (operational spending) compared to Hardin Unit District spending $7,456 per student -- Hardin County has slighly better test scores.
According to the Tribune's tax calculator, property owners in Algonquin will see their taxes (increased income tax and abated property taxes) increase by 13.7% while Hardin County residents will see their taxes increase by 41.5% to 42.6%. East St. Louis (with the highest property tax rate and the lowest equlized assessed valuation per student in Illinois) will see their taxes increase by 17.6% to 29.5%. The citizens of Illinois that do not own property (prodominantly low-income individuals) will see their tax rates increase by 67%. Still think the tax swap is a good deal for citizens in poor school districts?
Why can't our legislators emulating the successful, frugal districts in Illinois instead of the high-spending wasteful districts? The director of education policy at the Mackinac Public Policy Institute in Michigan wrote (9/6/06), "many people seem to believe that the worst performing schools are those spending the least per student. But this is not the case. Take, for example, the 117 Michigan public schools that have failed to meet federal and state standards under the No Child Left Behind Act for five or more consecutive years. Calculations based on recently released data from the Michigan Department of Education show that 89 percent of those consistently failing schools are in districts that rank in the top quarter of all districts in terms of per-pupil expenditures for operations." Most of the failing schools in Illinois also come from the highest spending quartile. Failing schools do not have a funding problem, they have a spending problem.
Instead our legislators work to enact the "tax swap" which failed miserably in New Jersey and Michigan.
It would be nice if legislators looked at school districts in Illinois that have above average test scores while frugally spending taxpayer money. Would it surprise you to learn that the unit school district with the lowest property tax rate of only 2.048% (Hardin County Unit District, latest published tax rates are from 2003 and spending figures from fiscal year 2005) had an equalized assessed valuation of only $32,251 per student? (In comparison District 300 has an equalized assessed valuation of $143,809 per student and tax rate of 3.8656% plus whatever the passed referenda add to the tax rate). With the stronger tax base, District 300 spent $8,048 per student (operational spending) compared to Hardin Unit District spending $7,456 per student -- Hardin County has slighly better test scores.
According to the Tribune's tax calculator, property owners in Algonquin will see their taxes (increased income tax and abated property taxes) increase by 13.7% while Hardin County residents will see their taxes increase by 41.5% to 42.6%. East St. Louis (with the highest property tax rate and the lowest equlized assessed valuation per student in Illinois) will see their taxes increase by 17.6% to 29.5%. The citizens of Illinois that do not own property (prodominantly low-income individuals) will see their tax rates increase by 67%. Still think the tax swap is a good deal for citizens in poor school districts?
Why can't our legislators emulating the successful, frugal districts in Illinois instead of the high-spending wasteful districts? The director of education policy at the Mackinac Public Policy Institute in Michigan wrote (9/6/06), "many people seem to believe that the worst performing schools are those spending the least per student. But this is not the case. Take, for example, the 117 Michigan public schools that have failed to meet federal and state standards under the No Child Left Behind Act for five or more consecutive years. Calculations based on recently released data from the Michigan Department of Education show that 89 percent of those consistently failing schools are in districts that rank in the top quarter of all districts in terms of per-pupil expenditures for operations." Most of the failing schools in Illinois also come from the highest spending quartile. Failing schools do not have a funding problem, they have a spending problem.
How about this comparison between NY City and Chicago Public Schools.
http://district299.typepad.com/district299/2006/12/1001_hours_a_ye.html
Students in Chicago spend less time in class than any students in the nation's 50 largest school districts. The New York City student spends 1271 hours per year in school (the equivalent of an additional 8 weeks per year in school compared to Chicago students). Over the 13 years from k-12, that amounts to almost 3 years worth of extra classroom instruction.
The average Chicago teacher earns over $61,000 per year for working 1001 hours in the classroom (and that includes planning periods during the day when students are not in the teacher's classroom). I'll admit that many teachers actually work more than that 1001 hours (grading papers, coaching, lesson planning...) so I'll leave someone else to figure out how much teachers earn per hour. But who is better paid, a teacher earning $61,000 for working 1001 hours per year in class, or an engineer (nurse, architect or other professional) earning the same amount for 2080 hours per year?
On January 11th,2006 Extremewisdom.com posted newspaper articles regarding what the tax swap plan has done to schools and taxes in Michigan and New Jersey. A legislator in New Jersey called the bill to lower property taxes as a "well-intentioned mistake."
http://district299.typepad.com/district299/2006/12/1001_hours_a_ye.html
Students in Chicago spend less time in class than any students in the nation's 50 largest school districts. The New York City student spends 1271 hours per year in school (the equivalent of an additional 8 weeks per year in school compared to Chicago students). Over the 13 years from k-12, that amounts to almost 3 years worth of extra classroom instruction.
The average Chicago teacher earns over $61,000 per year for working 1001 hours in the classroom (and that includes planning periods during the day when students are not in the teacher's classroom). I'll admit that many teachers actually work more than that 1001 hours (grading papers, coaching, lesson planning...) so I'll leave someone else to figure out how much teachers earn per hour. But who is better paid, a teacher earning $61,000 for working 1001 hours per year in class, or an engineer (nurse, architect or other professional) earning the same amount for 2080 hours per year?
On January 11th,2006 Extremewisdom.com posted newspaper articles regarding what the tax swap plan has done to schools and taxes in Michigan and New Jersey. A legislator in New Jersey called the bill to lower property taxes as a "well-intentioned mistake."
While New York schools receive less than half of their funding from local sources, they still manage to have the largest spending gap between poor and wealthy districts. Tax-swap advocates claim that increased state funding would minimize the spending gaps, but that didn't happen in New York.
Post a Comment
<< Home
