Schools want more sales tax money
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By Sheena Dooley | Tuesday, November 27, 2007 |
Faced with losing millions of dollars, school districts in Scott County are pushing lawmakers to reconsider the state’s limit on how much money they can make from a 1-cent sales tax.
Legislators capped the amount of money districts could raise from the local option sales tax four years ago, allowing them to collect as much as $575 per student. The change was meant to bring funding for retail-poor districts up to that of their peers in more urban counties after 161 districts brought an inequity lawsuit against the state.
When lawmakers passed the measure, they said districts that had already passed the 10-year countywide sales tax would not be affected until it expired and voters approved an extension.
Legislators also promised to revisit the limit each year to adjust it as necessary but have failed to do so. And with the pool of money poised to grow substantially in the next three years, school districts are pushing lawmakers to pass legislation that adjusts the limit, so they don’t lose out on funding.
Among them are leaders in the Davenport, Bettendorf, Pleasant Valley and North Scott school districts. The four plan to have ballot measures in March 2008 asking residents to extend the tax another 10 years in Scott County.
“I am certainly an advocate for equity across the state,” said Tim Dose, North Scott School District superintendent. “The concept I agree with. But the amount they have established there needs to be re-examined.”
Half of the 10 districts that collect the most money from the tax, including Davenport, are in counties that approved it prior to the law’s changes. In the next two years, those districts will look to ask residents for a 10-year extension. If that happens, any money that exceeds the state’s cap will go back into a pool to be distributed to districts where the tax fails to generate enough money to put them at the $575 mark.
For example, Davenport currently collects more than $900 per student from the tax. Under the cap, the district would lose more than one-third of the $14.8 million that it currently takes in, according to figures from the Iowa Association of School Boards. That money then goes into the state pool, which the Iowa Department of Revenue distributes to other schools.
Sen. Frank Wood, D-Eldridge, co-chairman of the House-Senate committee that oversees education spending, said when voters approve extensions in the largest districts, there will be enough money to raise the state’s limit to more than $700 a student, according to estimates.
“It will be huge,” said Margaret Buckton, associate executive director of public policy for the Iowa Association of School Boards. “You are talking about millions of dollars.”
But for districts to tap into that money, the General Assembly must change the law. If it fails to do so, the law provides no provisions as to what happens to leftover dollars.
Lawmakers introduced two measures during the last legislative session that would have remedied the problem but were unsuccessful in pushing them through. Wood, who is also an assistant principal at North Scott High School, said one of the main factors in that was a lack of support from Gov. Chet Culver.
Local education officials say they are skeptical the Legislature will take action on the issue when it meets in January because it is an election year. Wood, who is up for re-election, said if Democrats push such a measure, their opponents could use it against them, saying they are looking to spend more taxpayer money.
“In order for this to be pushed through, it is going to have to be bipartisan,” Wood said. “I believe we have support in the Senate. We believe it’s an equity issue. Some of my colleagues that are Republican know their school districts need the money just as much as the Democrats’ school districts.”
Sheena Dooley can be contacted at (563) 383-2363 or sdooley@qctimes.com. Comment on this story at qctimes.com.
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