Posted on 09/02/2002 10:10:13 AM PDT by Dan from Michigan
Proposal A 'tweak' becomes grist for GOP mill
Posthumus uses issue to put heat on Granholm
By Chris Andrews
Lansing State Journal
Voter disgust with high property taxes helped elect John Engler in 1990. Now Lt. Gov. Dick Posthumus is banking that fear of heftier tax bills will do the same for him on Nov. 5.
Posthumus and other Republicans have seized on Democrat Jennifer Granholm's comment that Proposal A - a 1994 ballot proposal that put a lid on property taxes - needs to be tweaked.
Republicans have set up a Web site, www.taxtweak .com, which includes a video snippet of Granholm's vague tweak talk.
Last week, Posthumus undertook a five-day, 20-city bus tour pledging to protect Proposal A.
And he issued a warning that Granholm won't.
"No matter how you cover it up, no matter how you define it, you don't need a decoder ring to know that tweaking means raising your taxes," Posthumus said.
Granholm says that's nonsense. She pledged in her speech to the Democratic state convention to keep the promise of Proposal A.
"It's wishful thinking on the Posthumus campaign's part that she's talking about raising property taxes. That's completely false," spokesman Chris De Witt said. "She has stated time and again she does not want to return to the property tax system of old."
Despite Granholm's denials, Posthumus appears intent on pushing the issue throughout the campaign as they battle for a four-year term in the $177,000-a-year post.
Proposal A, passed by voters in 1994, provided the final pieces to a school finance overhaul that began when lawmakers voted to do away with school property taxes in the summer of 1993.
After several months of work, lawmakers devised a plan to shift from a system relying mostly on local property taxes to a state-funded system that boosted spending for poorer school districts and restrained spending for the wealthier ones.
Proposal A raised the state sales tax from 4 to 6 cents and triggered a number of other tax increases, including a 50-cents-a-pack increase in the cigarette tax.
Had voters rejected it, another set of taxes would have gone up to raise the money.
A significant selling point for Proposal A was its lid on property taxes. Assessments can go up by only 5 percent or the rate of inflation, whichever is lower, and it takes a three-quarters vote in the House and Senate to raise school millage limits.
For lower-spending districts, Proposal A has been a bonanza. And it's eliminated the need for school officials to ask voters for more millages.
But while Proposal A is widely viewed as effective in lowering property taxes and narrowing funding gaps, there has been criticism and calls for reform.
Many school districts complain that Proposal A fails to address school districts' problems in fixing, upgrading and building schools. The system relies on local property taxes, making it difficult for districts with lower property tax bases.
Wealthier districts have regularly received lower-than-inflation funding increases. With no ability to go to local voters for more money to run schools, officials say it is impossible to keep the programs their communities have come to expect.
Posthumus and Granholm both oppose opening the door to more local millages.
Granholm says her ideas about tweaking Proposal A include offering tax credits to people and businesses who contribute to educational foundations and providing low-interest loans to school districts to fix or build schools.
"I would not like to see a millage system, but there are other ways for communities to have flexibility," she said.
Posthumus said he will fight any and all changes to Proposal A.
"As far as I'm concerned, it's the single most important policy change this state has made since the adoption of the present constitution (in 1963)," he said.
East Lansing, confronted with declining enrollment, has reduced staff, increased class sizes and eliminated middle school sports.
East Lansing schools Superintendent Tom Giblin said he believes community residents should be allowed to decide whether they want to tax themselves to maintain their programs.
"If I'm the governor of Michigan, I certainly have to look at something that causes this much consternation," Giblin said. "If nothing else, there ought to be a review of Proposal A to make sure we look at the pluses and minuses."
Okemos, another of the area's wealthier school district's, is facing the possibility of closing one or two elementary schools and realigning the schools to make ends meet.
State Rep. Pan Godchaux, R-Birmingham, has introduced legislation that would help some of the state's wealthiest districts, but the measure isn't expected to be considered any time soon.
Taxpayers are mixed about whether to tinker with Propo-sal A. Michael Austin, a General Motors Corp. worker from Lansing, said the Lansing schools are in bad shape.
"I'm willing to pay a little more. You've got to help the schools," said Austin, a member of the Lansing State Journal's election panel.
But Daniel Hischke, a Consumers Energy specialist, said schools need to do a better job managing the money they have.
"You could double the amount that you give to public schools, and in three years, they'd still be broke," said Hischke, another panel member. "Proposal A has done a good job to make it a little harder to throw money at problems."
------------- Proposal A
Here are some of the key features of Proposal A:
The sales tax rose from 4 percent to 6 percent.
Property tax assessment increases are limited to 5 percent or inflation, whichever is lower, until the property is sold.
It takes a three-quarters vote in the Legislature to raise school tax rates.
It triggered a series of other tax increases, including the cigarette tax.
Granholm says that's nonsense. She pledged in her speech to the Democratic state convention to keep the promise of Proposal A.
Oh Really? That's not what she said in February. C'mon Jenny, don't lie to me.
Posthumus and Granholm both oppose opening the door to more local millages.
Posthumus does....Grandstand sure doesn't.
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