Sales tax bill calls for choice between schools and city bus service

[unhappycamper]

http://www.fayobserver.com/news/local/sales-tax-bill-calls-for-choice-between-schools-and-city/article_ef6a0a46-6393-57ff-b6d5-82fef329db0d.html



Sales tax bill calls for choice between schools and city bus service
Posted: Friday, July 18, 2014 9:23 pm | Updated: 9:40 am, Sat Jul 19, 2014.
By Paul Woolverton Staff writer

A bill the state Senate is considering would force counties to choose between funding public schools or public city buses.

The bill would allow counties, with voter permission, to boost the local portion of the sales tax by up to a half-cent, so long as the total local portion of sales taxes would be no more than 2.5 percent of a product's price. The state levies another 4.75 percent sales tax.

Counties could give their new revenue to their local public school systems and community colleges. Or, they could instead spend it on local public transportation systems. But they couldn't do both.

The bill emerged as Senate and House leaders continued a weeks-long argument over whether to lay off several thousand teaching assistants across the state and using their salaries to give pay raises to teachers. This local sales tax increase could be used to pay teachers and teaching assistants.

[barbtries]

1. they're really going to take this state down aren't they

the bastards.
GOTV!!!!!!!!!

[mnhtnbb]

2. This is a direct slap at progressive counties--like Orange County--where the city buses

in Chapel Hill and Carrboro are fare free. They are supported by property taxes and also partially subsidized by fees from UNC - Chapel Hill.


And of course, what's in the local Chapel Hill paper this a.m.? An article about all the teacher vacancies
in the Chapel Hill/Carrboro City Schools system. At one time, this system was listed as one of the 10 best
public school systems in the country. How did it get that way? Support from local residents to pay additional
city taxes for the schools. Now with the budget cuts from the state, even the high property taxes in Chapel Hill
don't provide enough support to pay the kind of salaries that excellent teachers deserve.

Take a look at all the job openings: http://schooljobs.dpi.state.nc.us/Jobs/Search?searchText=&leaCode=681&category=&timeCode=&title=


There is no doubt in my mind that the group of Republicans running this state are out to destroy public education in NC.

[blkmusclmachine]

3. GOP's model society: Afghanistan

[DAMANgoldberg]

4. All of this because...

God forbid, a county wants to tax their own people to do what the state will not do and that is to fund the school system properly. I live in Mecklenburg County, the largest in the state. We have a 7.25% sales tax, of which 0.50% goes to CATS,, the local transit system. Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools has requested another 0.25% for teacher salaries that bring the total to 7.50%, but no...the state says this is too much, and the leader of their party spent 14 public years here allowing higher taxes to pay for transit, what is now Bank of America stadium, the original arena deal and what is now Time Warner Cable arena, and the original baseball stadium deal (BB&T Ballpark came on Anthony Foxx & Patrick Cannon's admins).

I am poor, rely on public transportation to get around, and disabled. I could really afford not to pay any more taxes, and I have no children in the school system. The extra 0.25% is painful, but it won't kill my already dead budget. We have enough issues with the mismanagement of CMS, but the teachers should get the resources they need to actually teach, and have no problem with that.

[mwooldri]

5. How much do schools pay to run their school bus system?

It still amazes me that we have all these yellow school buses purely dedicated to transporting our children to and from school... and that's all they do.

In Guildford Borough, England, a student who goes to school by bus would usually catch a bus that normally does public transport duties when it's not taking students to and from school. Signs are put on the bus when it's on school duty and the start/end point is the school. There are some exceptions where regular bus routes will deviate to/from a school on school days and students catch those normal buses instead.

The student doesn't pay the fare, because they present a school provided bus pass.

So in Guilford County, NC, would it be feasible for this 0.25% sales tax to fund city buses but in return the city bus systems have to provide school bus routes? That way, the 0.25% can still make its way to the education budget as the cost for transporting the students is reallocated to education. The cost of running the bus is already paid for with the extra tax revenue ... so why not?

Or am I reading this all wrong? What am I missing?

[G_j]

6. Tell your state legislators that we shouldn’t have to choose between education and public transit:

State legislators have introduced a last minute bill (H1224)1 which, if passed, would force many local governments to choose between properly funding public transit, public education, or any other local priority. This is especially true of the state's most populous counties, like Wake and Mecklenberg counties.

We don’t think we should have to choose between education and public transit. Send a message to your state leaders and urge them to oppose H1224 today: http://action.ncconservationnetwork.org/transiteducation

The Raleigh News & Observer reports on H1224:

"Counties would be limited to local sales taxes totaling 2.5 percent. Wake now has a 2 percent local sales tax and is allowed under current law to raise it to 2.75 percent – so this would reduce Wake’s revenue options.

If this bill became law, it could force Wake to choose between a prospective half-cent tax for transit and a quarter-cent to boost teacher salaries, as has been suggested by some commissioners."2

Here are just some of the reasons this bill makes no sense for North Carolina:

Since all NC counties already have at least a 2% sales tax, this bill would allow only another 1/2 cent increase ever, no matter the topic.
Counties like Wake (one of the fastest growing in the state), which have not yet levied a tax for transit or education, would likely be forced to choose between the two. This has the potential to eliminate the possibility for the passage of a long awaited transit plan in Wake County!

Tell your state legislators that we shouldn’t have to choose between education and public transit: http://action.ncconservationnetwork.org/transiteducation

Thanks,

Brittany Iery
NC Conservation Network