A change in how the state finances schools is having an effect that is the reverse of what Robin Hood would do, an advocacy group contends.
It is aiding the rich at the expense of the poor.
Increases in the state’s school levy tax credit in recent years mean that taxpayers statewide saw $822.4 million taken off of their property tax bills in December. But the Association for Equity in Funding argues that credit amount, which is distributed based on property tax burden, results in more help for school districts where residents generally have higher incomes and already spend more on education than for low-income districts.
How much so? In an analysis released in December, the group found that all but one of 46 school districts that received more than $1,500 per pupil from the levy credit spent above the state average. In contrast, 35 of the 57 school districts that received less than $500 per pupil from the credit had below-average spending.
That result is contrary to the general aim of the state’s school funding system to distribute aid in a way to help reduce the gap between rich and poor communities, the association said.
“The governor and the Legislature should stop increasing the school levy credit now!” wrote Doug Haselow, executive director of the association, which unsuccessfully sued to overturn the state’s school funding system earlier in the decade.
That might be difficult to do.
One main reason that the levy credit has increased in every budget since Gov. Jim Doyle took office is that “it’s an accounting trick,” said Todd Berry, president of the Wisconsin Taxpayers Alliance.
Although the levy credit can be counted toward funding the state government’s two-thirds portion of school costs in one year, it actually isn’t paid to municipalities until the following fiscal year, Berry said. That has helped the state balance its budgets while claiming to cover its obligations, he said.