- Posted by David on December 23, 2008
Tuesday, December 23, 2008 3:17 AM
By MIKE CURTIN
In 1970, about 75 cents of each dollar collected in Franklin County property taxes went to support schools. Today, that share is about 65 cents.
What happened?
Within a generation, we've decided lots of good causes deserve tax support, and we've funded most of them from the property tax.
Semi-annual property tax bills on about 433,000 Franklin County parcels soon will be mailed. The bills include a breakdown of where the money goes.
However, the bills reveal nothing about how property-tax distributions have shifted over time.
Although tax allocations differ across Ohio's 88 counties, it's generally true that school districts face more competition than ever for their share of the property-tax pie.
In Franklin County, until 1976 there was no property tax for the Columbus Metropolitan Library. Until 1985, no levy for the Columbus Zoo. Until 1992, no levy for services for senior citizens.
And, since 1980, voters have approved more-generous levies for abused and neglected children, the mentally retarded and mental-health services.
We've doubled the slice of the property-tax pie going to Franklin County Children's Services, and more than doubled it for the Board of Mental Retardation and Developmental Disabilities. Ditto for the Alcohol, Drug Addiction and Mental Health Services Board.
All of these agencies provide marvelous and sometimes life-saving services. Voters seldom have rejected their levy appeals.
Now, as the state faces severe budget constraints, many tax-dependent agencies will be losing some of their state support. They will assess whether local taxpayers are willing to pay more to preserve and possibly expand services.
On some fronts, the trend already is evident. Before the state froze library funding in 2002, about a fourth of Ohio's 251 library systems levied a local property tax. Now, more than a third do.
Expect to see more tax pressure among Ohio's 66 senior-services agencies, 62 park districts, 54 ADAMH boards, and on down the list.
At some point, policymakers must pay more attention to the cumulative effect all this property-tax pressure has on the schools.
"I don't think there's been much discussion" of the erosion of schools' share of the property-tax pie, observed Mark Real, president of KidsOhio.org, a nonpartisan group dedicated to improving public education in Ohio. "I don't think this is widely realized."
He believes school districts have been more focused on the effects of Ohio's phase-out of the personal property tax and the shifting burden from businesses to individuals.
Many school leaders have noticed the trend in property-tax sharing but haven't complained much, said Thomas Ash, director of governmen-tal relations for the Buckeye Association of School Administrators. "So many of these other government or quasi-government entities have only one source to go to," Ash said.
For decades in Ohio, "the standard we used was about 75 percent of property tax revenue went to the schools," Ash said. In recent years, as more service providers have taken bigger shares, "the overriding sentiment is that there is little we can do about that," he said.
It's one more reason educators have been vocal about finding a state-based funding solution for Ohio's 600-plus school districts.
However, it's highly unlikely the state can dramatically reduce local school districts' reliance on the property tax. Since 1821, it's been the financial bedrock of Ohio's schools. In 2007, property taxes generated $9.5 billion for local and joint vocational school districts.
In recent decades, the state has done much to supplement school funding, especially in low-property-wealth districts. But local property taxes still account for almost half of all nonfederal school funding.
Recent trends indicate schools will continue to face heightened competition for those property-tax dollars.
Mike Curtin is associate publisher emeritus of The Dispatch.
mcurtin@dispatch.com