The
Columbus Dispatch...
Suburban voters
likely in dark about redistributive taxation
By Thomas Suddes
Sunday, May 15, 2011
When house prices rebound, as someday they will, voters in suburban
Ohio - as in, “taxpaying” voters - may be primed for a full-scale tax
revolt, based on school-finance rumbles. Here’s why:
State taxes are “redistributive.” When you pay Ohio’s gasoline tax (28
cents a gallon) at a Sunoco pump, your money doesn’t necessary fill any
potholes in the street that leads to the service station.
Same goes with Ohio’s income tax. You pay up, then the 132 traffic cops
in the General Assembly re-ship that money wherever.
For a long time, what that means didn’t register in suburbia.
Homeowners there often pay top dollar in state income tax - and, also
often, top dollar in property taxes for local schools.
But earlier this year, a light bulb went off in some suburban rumpus
rooms, when Republican Gov. John Kasich’s proposed budget, unveiled in
March, hinted at one of Ohio’s powerful political secrets.
As the budget was written (Ohio’s Republican-run House has since
revised it), state aid to suburban school districts - in truth, never
all that great to begin with - was leaner than it had been, even
allowing for the end of the Obama administration’s “stimulus” funding.
Suburban school superintendents and suburban school boards howled,
because the only way to make up sparser state aid - again, never lush
to begin with, but still ... - is to try to pass more local levies.
Good luck with that.
As it happens, Ohio’s Taxation Department tracks how much state income
tax is collected within each school district. And the legislature’s
nonpartisan research staff compiles estimates of how much state aid
every school district will get as Ohio’s state budget bill now stands.
(It’s still a work in progress.)
So consider some of Ohio’s better-off school districts, how much state
income tax their residents paid for 2009 (latest year available) and
each district’s currently projected 2011-12 state aid. Keep in mind
that a district’s total state subsidy depends on how many pupils it
has, local property wealth, etc. (Yes, comparing income tax to school
aid can be like comparing kumquats to kitty cats, except that the
numbers show, in concept, how Robin Hood rules state government.)
In greater Cleveland, Rocky River district residents paid $27 million
in state income tax and are projected to get $1.33 million in state
school aid. Solon paid $44 million and is projected to get $11.7
million for schools. Westlake paid $56 million and is projected to get
$4.2 million.
In metro Columbus, Bexley paid $24.7 million in state income tax and is
projected to get $3.6 million for schools. Dublin paid $114.9 million
and is projected to get $19.3 million. Olentangy paid $127 million and
is projected to get $8.1 million. Upper Arlington paid $73 million and
is projected to get $3.2 million.
In the Miami Valley, residents of Kettering’s city school district paid
$43 million in state income tax and are projected to get $17.8 million
for schools. Oakwood residents paid $19.8 million and are projected to
get $5.1 million.
Now consider two “property poor” school districts, Trimble (north of
Athens) and Scioto County’s Northwest district, which Democratic former
Gov. Ted Strickland attended. In 2009, residents of the Northwest
district paid $3.2 million in state income tax are projected to get
$12.8 million in school aid. The Trimble district paid $1.15 million
and is projected to get $6.3 million.
Is this the way “redistributive” taxation - Ohio’s school-aid setup -
is supposed to work? Yes. But does suburban Ohio know what the deal is?
Usually, no. When voters figure things out, stand back.
Read it at the Columbus Dispatch
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