MMA proposal needed

The MSAD 1 school board and the Presque Isle City Council urge you to support ballot Question 1-A, the citizen-initiated School Finance and Tax Reform Act of 2003. This tax reform effort is spearheaded by the Maine Municipal Association and will appear on the Nov. 4 ballot. It’s a solid, easily understood proposal supported by more than 10,000 registered Maine voters who want a chance to vote on it in November. It’s the right choice for Maine voters who want meaningful tax reform now, not later.

A competing measure was recently approved by the Maine Legislature and will also appear on the ballot as Question 1-B. The competing measure continues the Legislature’s 19-year trend of broken promises to pay for 55 percent of the cost for K-12 education. The Legislature currently pays just 43.6 percent of K-12 education, or $260 million less than its promised amount. Guess who pays the difference? Yes, you, the local property taxpayer. The voters want and deserve better, and the MMA initiative does just that.

Having two tax proposals on the same ballot indicates that the Maine Legislature was unable to develop a meaningful property tax reform package without being forced to do so by the very citizens they represent. Maine communities have repeatedly asked the Legislature to deal with a meaningful tax reform, to no avail. The Legislature was politically unable to produce a property tax reform proposal until 100,599 registered voters were heard through the MMA initiative. These signatures set a state record for the most-ever collected for a citizen-initiated proposal. The initiative is the result of years of inaction by the Legislature and unfunded mandates, resulting in a shift onto the local property tax.

The MMA proposal is the better of the two measures. K-12 education costs are a major portion of the local property tax bill. The MMA plan will reduce local property taxes statewide by requiring the State to live up to its promise of funding K-12 at 55 percent. This will require the State to fund an additional $200 million more for educational costs.

The Legislature will be compelled to restructure the tax code to find this new money. The MMA and municipalities throughout the State stand ready, able and willing to assist the Legislature in this effort, for municipalities have submitted many solid tax reform proposals in the past that deserve serious consideration. The MMA proposal will utilize the experience of the Legislature, which will be compelled by referendum vote to reform the tax structure.

Tax reform is a complex problem. The MMA proposal provides for a straightforward approach that brings many interested parties together to find a solution. The competing measure provides for years of complicated formulas that the average taxpayer, at best, will have difficulty comprehending.

The competing measure works like this: Between now and the year 2010 the state would try to meet school funding “targets.” These targets are tiered on top of one another. These targets begin in the fiscal year of 2006. The target would pay 49 percent of K-12 education as measured by a separate target of 84 percent of the Essential Programs and Services school funding model.

In the fiscal year of 2007, the state share target would increase to 50.5 percent and the Essential Programs Services target would increase to 88 percent. In this way, each of the targets would increase until 2010, when the state share target would be 55 percent (where it should be right now) and the Essential Programs Services would be 100 percent complete.

Sound complicated? It is.

The competing measure provides a zero percent increase in state funding for education next year, and then a gradual phase-in. The state would not fund K-12 education at 55 percent until 2010. This is simply an unacceptable time schedule for those who want tax reform now, not in 2010.

If the MMA proposal was already in place for fiscal year 2004, MSAD 1 would receive $1.6M in additional State funds. For the competing measure, under current law for fiscal year 2005, MSAD 1 will receive a total of $15,292,736 from state and local funds. In FY 2006, MSAD 1 would receive $15,066,098, or $226,638 less. Local communities are welcomed to make up the difference, just like we have been required to do in the past. Quality education will suffer.

The MMA initiative is long overdue and will address much-needed tax reform now, not in 2010.

Thomas Stevens is the Presque Isle town manager and Gehrig Johnson is the superintendent of MSAD 1. This column was approved by both the Presque Isle City Council and the MSAD 1 school board.