Minimum--very minimum--School Support on Ballot in Alabama
As voters across the country go to the polls next week, many will be asked to cast a ballot on one or more tax initiatives--or on measures to limit government's taxing authority or its spending. Many of those initiatives could have far-reaching implications for schools. One initiative that has received little national attention is in Alabama.
In that state a measure known as Amendment 2 would require all school systems in the state to contribute 10 mills of local property tax toward the support of local schools. That's just $1 in taxes on each $1000 in valuation, or $100 a year for a $100,000 house. Hard to believe, but true.
Part of the reason the measure has gotten so little attention is that it's a somewhat embarrassing situation, even for the most strident anti-tax advocates. Less than $100 a year on a $100,000 house is very little to ask citizens to provide toward the support of local schools.
Another reason that the measure has gotten relatively little attention outside the state is that it will apply primarily to rural counties. The most powerful advocates for low property taxes in Alabama have traditionally been large corporations and individuals that hold huge tracts of "unimproved" (mainly forest) acreage-- acreage that is mainly in rural places.
All this matters, in part, because Alabama funds schools through a "minimum foundation" formula that calculates a total budget for each school system based on a variety of factors. The local school system is required to put up the equivalent of 10 mills toward that budget, and the state provides the balance of funds. Local school systems have some additional ways to supplement funding through local revenues, but those options are limited and vary widely across the state.
Currently, school systems that don't have 10 mills of property tax must make up the equivalent in other taxes, mainly sales tax.
Most of the state's 131 school systems do make the ten mill contribution from property taxes, but 24 county-wide school systems (out of just 67 county-wide systems statewide) and six city school systems (most of which happen to be in small towns) levy less than 10 mills and make up the difference with sales taxes.
If you've read this far it will come as no surprise that Alabama's property taxes are the lowest in the nation--by a long, long shot. And you will surely see that rural districts, especially, must rely very heavily on the state for the funding of schools, and that poor people who bear the brunt of the sales tax burdern (in Alabama sales tax is applied to food and medicine) disproprotionately fund schools, especially in rural areas where "unimproved" land is concentrated.
Alabama's constitution is a labyrinth of rules and restrictions that apply unevenly across the state (hence the wide variation in the kinds of local revenue options that are available). In addition, complicated and extremely limited provisions for "home rule" mean that all kinds of local decisions cannot be voted on by the people whom those decisions affect and, instead, must be decided by the legislature and/or a statewide ballot vote.
So it is that voters across Alabama will decide on Tuesday whether 30 school systems will be required to raise 10 mills of local property tax for the support of local schools.
In some ways it takes pressure off voters in the rural counties where anti-property tax interests have traditionally focused their anti-tax dollars, ad campaigns, and, in some cases, scare tactics and intimidation campaigns.
The vote won't make a lot of difference in how much money schools actually get; in that regard it's as much a tax fairness vote as a funding adequacy vote (because Amendment 2 would shift more of the tax burden to people who actually own valuable goods and, at least potentially, off the people who are simply buying food for their families). It won't resolve the larger problems of an unfair and antiquated revenue system or a dysfunctional constitution or inadequate school funding.
But Tuesday Alabama voters will get to say a little something about what they're willing to do for schools, and particularly what they expect property owners to do for schools in some of the state's most rural counties.
It will be interesting to see how that vote goes.