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Price of equality isn't so equal
(by Dave Lange - May 25, 2011)
COUNTY LINE, BY DAVE LANGE
Price of equality isn't so equal
There's been a lot of hand wringing by area school officials lately over Gov. John Kasich's proposed "Robin Hood" redistribution of tax dollars from wealthier districts to poorer ones. The money generally flows from Northeast Ohio south.
Most people, I believe, understand the basic American concept of taxing citizens according to their ability to pay so that this "one nation under God, indivisible," can strive for some degree of equality.
Thus, people with higher incomes are expected to pay more taxes, perhaps at graduated rates and without too many loopholes, to the federal government, for the common defense, so that we all can share the joy of killing Osama bin Laden. Thus, people who can afford shiny new Cadillacs are expected to pay higher sales taxes to the state than those who can only afford used Cobalts, so that everyone can share the pleasure of traveling on Ohio's wonderful highways -- unless they can't afford gasoline at $4 a gallon.
And people who can afford $600,000 homes in Solon are expected to pay higher property taxes than those who live in $40,000 homes in Lucasville, so that everybody's children can receive an equal opportunity to a quality public education. Well, not really.
Actually, those property taxes stay in the home districts so that citizens who can afford more expensive houses also get to have better schools. But the state has been redistributing some of the sales and income taxes that it collects from people who live in school districts like Orange and Kenston to districts like Rock Hill in Lawrence County and Wellsville in Columbiana County in a feeble attempt to equalize things a bit for quite some time. And Gov. Kasich's budget might do a bit more of that, which can be quite upsetting for people who live in Bainbridge or Moreland Hills.
It might be even more upsetting for them to learn that property-tax payers in many of those school districts that benefit from the redistribution of taxes aren't paying their fair share to begin with.
In general, according to figures from the Ohio Department of Education, total local property-tax support for schools ranges between 1.5 percent and 2.5 percent of local income levels. Many of those that pay a higher percentage than that happen to be in Northern Ohio, while most that pay below that level are in Southern Ohio.
Some of the highest levels are in Cuyahoga County, including: Fairview Park, 3.25 percent; Garfield Heights, 2.89 percent; East Cleveland, 2.75 percent, and Shaker Heights, 2.73 percent. Locally, Kenston is the highest at 2.49 percent, and Chagrin Falls is the lowest at 1.75 percent. Others include: Solon, 2.38 percent; Chardon, 2.37 percent; Newbury, 2.18 percent; West Geauga, 2.09 percent, Orange, 1.84 percent; and Berkshire, 1.83 percent.
But counties along the Ohio River are full of school districts where local education receives less than 1.3 percent of the local incomes, including Columbiana, Jefferson, Scioto, Washington and even Hamilton, where the median household income is higher than Cuyahoga County.
Of course, the state should be helping children who happen to live in districts that can't afford decent schools. But first, it should be making sure that their own communities pay what they can afford.
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