Jodi Rell proposes education funding


Somewhat bad timing for yesterday's post in which I criticized Rell for lacking imagination. Today she announced her plan to have the state bear its promised share of the cost of education, and she actually comes close to proposing something useful. Her plan requires a tax increase, which the Courant duly headlines (Rell Proposes Increasing Income, Cigarette Taxes) instead of putting the very necessary education funding front and center. How much of a net tax increase this represents is unclear, since the increased revenues to the towns would enable them to lower their taxes.

Rell presumably believes she can get this plan through because she'll get all the votes she needs from the Democrats. They should probably pass something like it, but they should take this opportunity, since the governor will be in the tax increase boat with them, of making our income tax more progressive, instead of merely raising the tax rates. Right now there are only two tax brackets in Connecticut. Why not create a couple of new brackets, and put a bit more of a squeeze on the folks at the top. This might even enable the legislature to reduce the bottom rate a bit.

I couldn't find anything in the articles I read, or on the Governor's website (though I admit I haven't read everything) about how the governor proposes to guarantee that the new revenues will actually be paid to the towns. I remember those dim and distant days in which the State Lottery revenues were supposed to fund education. That's how it was sold when it was first proposed. Basically, it goes into the general fund. Education doesn't even get the lions share of the profits. So would the proceeds of a tax increase. The legislature simply can't effectively bind future legislatures. Our state legislators are prone to solving their own budget problems by pushing the problem down to the towns, where the buck stops, and there's no indication that Rell has a plan to effectively foreclose that possibility.

So one cheer for the governor.
Posted: Wednesday - February 07, 2007 at 08:21 PM          

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