and the Answer is...

[Chris_Wendt]

(Please read the thread titled: "Updated Good News from Albany" first:
wantaghsd.proboards.com/index.cgi?board=general&action=display&thread=527&page=1
paying particular attention to the last update post.)

Before I give the Answer, allow me to frame the question:

Presuming a two percent tax increase is even feasible under the new "Tax Cap", are we okay with having our school taxes increase 2% every year, forever and ever?

The answer is, or it should be, "No, of course not!"

In the face of a protracted period of declining enrollment, increasing state aid (by 4% next year), and the amortization over time of long-term debt (capital bonds), we should be anticipating at least some years of zero tax increases, perhaps even one year of a tax decrease.

There is an underlying "answer" (solution) to be delved into. That is to remove the tax cap, and instead cap spending per pupil at present levels, freezing it for the number of years duration of the teacher's contracts in each district, and then having a triennial referendum to increase, hold, or decrease spending per pupil the year before teacher contract negotiations begin.

By doing that, the Board of Education would know in advance their limits within which the upcoming teacher contract can be settled. But meanwhile, actual spending, the bogeyman that causes taxes in the first place, would be pegged to enrollment, up, or down.

Nothing prevents the Board from adopting this suggestion as a their methodology for the next three years budgets by the way.

This has exciting implications!

Chris Wendt

[e-mail]