12-03-2017, 10:23 AM
Yes, Unions lie about teaching salaries when the information is publicly available. Sure, I mean sure, there's a huge teacher shortage because the pay is so great and no one wants to live in Hawaii.
Anyway Hawaii is especially vulnerable to the GOP tax restructuring plan because the education system comes from the State's General Fund. This is abnormal as most states pay for schools from property tax. However due to Hawaii's history of rich land owners not wanting to pay taxes and hoping to keep the population uneducated and in the fields they structured the education funds in a very different manor - not based on property which would effect them the most.
So there's two big problems with the tax restructuring plan from the GOP. First is the lack of state deductions and secondly is taxing student endowments as income. The second one seems especially cruel, even for the GOP.
The first is the biggest problem to Hawaii though is still up in the air because the house and senate bills have not been reconciled.
There are several provisions in both pieces of legislation [house bill vs senate bill] that would take serious aim at K-12 education at the state and local funding levels. Reporters and editorials have stressed that eliminating the deductions for state and local taxes (SALT) including property taxes, as in the Senate bill, will heavily impact Democratic leaning states with higher tax burdens, but the Governmental Finance Officers Association (GFOA) reports that eliminating SALT deductions from the tax code will have a broadly negative impact on tax payers in all states. According to the GFOA findings:
* 30% of tax units use the SALT deduction.
* 60% of deductions for earners under $50,000 a year come from property taxes and the loss of the deduction would negatively impact home ownership and price stability.
* 30% of earners between $50,000 and $75,000 a year use the SALT deduction. 53% of earners between $75,000 and $100,000 a year use it.
* Income earners at all levels would see their taxes go up if the SALT deduction is eliminated.
More importantly from a public school perspective: the loss of the SALT deduction would apply significant pressure on states and municipalities to reduce taxes in order to offset the increases in federal taxes paid by their constituents. Using the 8th Congressional District in Texas north of Houston as a model, the GFOA estimates that the district would see an increase in federal taxes of $306 million dollars. Offsetting that with state and local tax decreases could impact $125 million in school funding. Simply put: education funding is an enormous local and state expenditure, and it would have to be cut in order to provide any relief to tax payers who lost SALT. https://www.gfoa.org/sites/default/files...202017.pdf
This is a good illustration of the GOP "starve the beast" philosophy which will probably force the state to find ways to reduce the tax burden and this is often reconciled by cutting public programs first -- parks, libraries, schools. It's a tired old cycle that hurts the future of this country.
Anyway Hawaii is especially vulnerable to the GOP tax restructuring plan because the education system comes from the State's General Fund. This is abnormal as most states pay for schools from property tax. However due to Hawaii's history of rich land owners not wanting to pay taxes and hoping to keep the population uneducated and in the fields they structured the education funds in a very different manor - not based on property which would effect them the most.
So there's two big problems with the tax restructuring plan from the GOP. First is the lack of state deductions and secondly is taxing student endowments as income. The second one seems especially cruel, even for the GOP.
The first is the biggest problem to Hawaii though is still up in the air because the house and senate bills have not been reconciled.
There are several provisions in both pieces of legislation [house bill vs senate bill] that would take serious aim at K-12 education at the state and local funding levels. Reporters and editorials have stressed that eliminating the deductions for state and local taxes (SALT) including property taxes, as in the Senate bill, will heavily impact Democratic leaning states with higher tax burdens, but the Governmental Finance Officers Association (GFOA) reports that eliminating SALT deductions from the tax code will have a broadly negative impact on tax payers in all states. According to the GFOA findings:
* 30% of tax units use the SALT deduction.
* 60% of deductions for earners under $50,000 a year come from property taxes and the loss of the deduction would negatively impact home ownership and price stability.
* 30% of earners between $50,000 and $75,000 a year use the SALT deduction. 53% of earners between $75,000 and $100,000 a year use it.
* Income earners at all levels would see their taxes go up if the SALT deduction is eliminated.
More importantly from a public school perspective: the loss of the SALT deduction would apply significant pressure on states and municipalities to reduce taxes in order to offset the increases in federal taxes paid by their constituents. Using the 8th Congressional District in Texas north of Houston as a model, the GFOA estimates that the district would see an increase in federal taxes of $306 million dollars. Offsetting that with state and local tax decreases could impact $125 million in school funding. Simply put: education funding is an enormous local and state expenditure, and it would have to be cut in order to provide any relief to tax payers who lost SALT. https://www.gfoa.org/sites/default/files...202017.pdf
This is a good illustration of the GOP "starve the beast" philosophy which will probably force the state to find ways to reduce the tax burden and this is often reconciled by cutting public programs first -- parks, libraries, schools. It's a tired old cycle that hurts the future of this country.