Willing to pay more for better schools?
Gov. Ed Rendell tells the story of a fellow who stopped him in front of his vacation home. The man said he doesn’t understand all the fuss Pennsylvanians are kicking up about a hike in the personal income tax. The fellow put it this way. He drives a Taurus. If he wanted something with higher performance and more horns and buttons, he would have to pay more. So the governor sees it this way: If Pennsylvanians want better schools for their children, if they want Harrisburg to invest in projects to stimulate the economy, then they will have to pay more.
The problem though for many hard-working Fayette Countians is they can’t even afford to keep the Taurus running. Much of Rendell’s plan for a new Pennsylvania centers on the quality of public education and how folks are going to pay for it. The governor wants smaller class sizes, full-day kindergarten, pre-school and targeted programs that have shown success in improving students’ performance. To help Fayette County’s schools with these initiatives some $24 million more in state aid would be pumped into the system.
In exchange the districts would need to lower property taxes by $8 million. It doesn’t take a math whiz to figure out that the government would spend much more than what it is cutting. That money has to come from somewhere. That’s where the wage tax hike comes in.
Senior citizens, living on Social Security and pensions, think it’s a grand idea. There are other winners, homeowners in districts where a greater portion of the local school district’s budget comes from property taxes. But in Fayette County, although it is hard for those who cut the checks to their schools to believe, just a small percentage of public school’s budgets come from local revenue. The bulk of the funding, around 70 percent, is from the state. So don’t look for property taxes to decrease much.
Few would argue with Rendell’s premise that our schools are failing to graduate students prepared to enter the workforce. Or that there are very few employers willing to hire high school grads for more than low-paying service industry jobs.
Both these problems require a solution. Rendell wants to know if Pennsylvanians are willing to pay more taxes to fund his plan. Are you?