Tax-cut priorities

The proposal yesterday by Senate President Mark Lawrence to put education ahead of a half-penny cut in the sales tax took both courage and vision. Courage because he must face other lawmakers who would rather announce tax cuts than truly relieve the burden of the property tax. And vision because he not only knows that education is the path to prosperity, he is willing to do something about it.

Sen. Lawrence’s proposal puts a lock on the automatic trigger that reduces the sales tax by a half cent. The lock comes off when the state pays for more than half of the total cost of K-12 education. Majority funding of schools, through General Purpose Aid to Education, is a promise the state made in 1985 and has rarely kept. It has never achieved the 55 percent level of funding called for in the ’85 law; it currently funds only 44 percent.

That leaves either property taxpayers to come up the rest or for schools to do without. The increasing burden of property taxes in poor towns has been well-documented by the state — many pay more and their schools still have to do without. The poorest pay more than 12 mills each year to education while the wealthiest towns pay only 7.8 mills. Sen. Lawrence’s plan — especially if it is accompanied by crucial reforms to the state’s school funding formula — would give towns struggling under high property taxes the relief they need and deserve.

These towns have been carrying the state’s education responsibility for a decade. They are the reason politicians in Augusta can talk about a budget surplus. They should be first in line to benefit from the targeted, means-tested tax relief that the Lawrence proposal would provide.

The half penny on the sales tax equals about $60 million a year. The Department of Education estimates that Maine needs to spend an additional $150 million a year to meet essential services in schools, and that doesn’t count the $120 million needed for renovations and repairs. Clearly, the half penny is not a complete solution, but it is an extremely important step forward.

More than that, it is an expression that someone in Augusta is setting worthwhile priorities. The promise to pay for education came years before the promise to reduce the sales tax. Providing relief from the property tax, far less progressive than Maine’s narrowly based sales tax, is more important than cutting the half-penny from the sales tax. And giving towns the opportunity to offer an adequate education is more important than saving tourists a few cents on their lobster T-shirts.

Sen. Lawrence’s plan is good for education and good for property tax relief. It sets the proper priorities in Augusta and deserves enthusiastic support from lawmakers.