Indiana's Assessment Problems Leads to School Funding Issues

I wanted to start this Blog with one concise point.  Indiana doesn't have a school funding issue without first having an assessment issue.  We have a tax policy issue created by a property assessment issue.  Starting on June 1, 2001 Indiana was forced to move to a true value property assessment system by the Indiana Supreme Court.  This system did away with the old system which controlled rate increases and allowed amortization of increased values due to the age of homes.   Under the new market value system people with older homes or say lake property, which were undervalued by the previous assessment system, saw increases in their property taxes due to huge gains in assessed value sheltered by the previous system of assessment.  Poor assessment methods by untrained personnel led to unpredictable property tax bills for the public from 2002-2004.  This led to a general tax payer revolt.  The politicians were unfairly held up as scapegoats by the taxpayers. The state level politicians held up the local entities as part of the problem and began to draft policies to control the ability of local lawmakers to raise property taxes, enter the property tax reform of 2008.   One of the changes provided in legislation took away local school boards' ability to support schools through the local tuition support levy. 

As you probably remember, the state raised the sales tax one percent to pay for this additional tuition support they were now responsible for providing.  When this occurred, numerous groups cautioned state leadership not to put school funding on methods which are so closely tied to market conditions as sales tax and income tax.  Schools had used the local property taxes as a stable and reliable funding mechanism to make it through lean times.  It is easy as Monday morning quarterback to point fingers at decision now, but there must have been other possible motivations to take away those specific local levies.
Some debated the Governor chose to take away local tuition support so he could evoke the Golden Rule, "He who has all the gold makes the rules.”  This full state support  may help motivate reforms coming down from the state.  Another outcome appears to be the hope it would spur competition between schools for the student ADM support.    

The rest is well documented history.  The state had huge short falls in tax receipts.  If the money isn't there you can't spend it.  Schools traditionally sheltered from such dramatic cuts by their local property tax support were forced to R.I.F. teachers, cut coaches, reduce administration, teaching assistants, custodial staff and glean every line item for budget cuts. 

What are the lessons learned from this?  Indiana has been a conservative state for a long time.  We were one of the last states to adopt common reforms such as day light savings time and a market value assessment system.  This prolonged delay in adopting an ad valorem assessment system led to large gains in assessed value in a short time period.  I know it will be hard for us, but we need to adopt common nationwide reforms sooner.    Dr. Bennett and Governor Daniels will surely not lot this happen under their watch and have been very progressive in searching for reforms.  Reforms are coming fast and furious.

We have to study the results of taxpayer supported referendums in other states.   Indiana’s current property tax and school funding policies are leading us towards two types of schools in Indiana: those who have communities which support education and those who have communities which do not.   Democracy is a wonderful thing.  Current laws and policies give taxpayers full control in deciding whether their local property taxes go up.  This is as it should be.  It is a natural response to the assessment issue where taxpayers tried to hold state level politicians accountable for their local property taxes.  However, we have to be cognizant of the fact we will have schools which will be better funded due to the demographics of their taxpayer base.  The differences between districts will increase over time until parents will vote with their feet towards education friendly districts.  The state wants schools to compete, but student ADM  in other states has shown not to be enough to make up for additional local support for tuition, capital projects, and technology expenditures.   I could be wrong, but since other states have dealt with such assessment and tax issues before Indiana, we have the luxury of watching what happened in states such as Michigan and Illinois.  

Just remember when someone brings up issues with school funding tell them the real problem started with assessment.