|
|||||||||||||
Printer-Friendly
Email this Story
Post a Comment (0)
Education funding reform
While reform often comes one step at a time, a Berryville resident says now is the time to push for change in the funding formula that decides how much state money Clarke County receives for education.Tom Nolan said it's not just educational aid at risk, but the preservation of the county’s cultural and natural heritage.
“Clarke County is at the eye of a perfect fiscal storm,” Nolan said at a recent Board of Supervisors meeting. The cause is “an antiquated system of local government finance,” known as the composite index.
The index is a formula that uses real estate values in the county, as well as adjusted gross income and retail sales, to derive a weighted ranking that determines a locality’s ability to pay for education.
Because of the weight assigned to real estate values, the formula “unfairly discriminates against Clarke County,” board chairman John Staelin (D-Millwood/Pine Grove) said. He believes the formula is outdated because it equates the amount of land a person owns with wealth – an premise that is no longer true.
The index “indirectly encourages real estate development” – which conflicts with the county’s policy of maximizing open space preservation.
By using its market – or sale – value, the index distorts the value of the county’s real estate. Nolan believes a better figure to use is a property's assessed value.
“Residential real estate development does not pay its own way,” Nolan said The result is a higher tax burden on other residents. Combined with the lure of market forces, this may put pressure on owners to sell their property.
“We shouldn’t be in a situation where people have to sell their house or land in order to pay their taxes, but that’s what the index encourages,” Staelin said.
Both Staelin and Nolan believe the assessed value of real estate is not a true measure of a jurisdiction's ability to pay. Instead, income and retail sales should be used as the “logical and direct measures,” Nolan said.
Using preliminary calculations with an adjusted index, Nolan said the county could potentially gain funds from the state. Under the current index, the school board is struggling to put together a fiscal 2009 budget as it attempts to close the gap between expenses and projected revenues.
But changing the formula would require action by state officials and lawmakers.
While Staelin believes the funding formula is flawed, he believes change often comes slowly in the Commonwealth.
Revising the formula would change the share each county receives of what's become a shrinking pot of state dollars.
Achieving reform will require educating the public, Nolan told supervisors. To help, Nolan has created a citizen’s task force The Friends of Rural Clarke’s Environment can be found online at www.home.earthlink.net/~taskforceclarke.
Contact the reporter at rmarlow@timespapers.com
You must be logged in to post a comment.