How Much Tax Money Goes To Knox Co Schools

The Knox County Board of Teaching should have its own taxing authority.

I am not advocating for a tax increase. That's a split up issue. But the organization of educational activity governance in our canton is dysfunctional.

Sixty percentage of budget goes to schools

Under the current arrangement, the Knox County Commission determines the amount of local tax revenue allocated to the school system. Although the Committee has no legal input into how it is spent, threescore percent of Knox County's budget – approximately $480 million - goes to schools. That is, the people responsible for taxing the citizens don't even control how more than half of that tax money is spent.

Instead, imagine your county property tax beak divided into ii components: county services and education. If the Knox County Schoolhouse Lath believed the district was underfunded, it could make its case to the voters, non County Commission. With taxing authority, School Board members would besides be judged on their funding, not just their expenditure decisions.

More than:Knox Canton School Board passes revised $485M upkeep; programs keep with revisions

As long as Canton Committee is responsible for setting tax rates and the Schoolhouse Board is responsible for spending 60 percent of the canton'due south budget, there volition exist a structural incentive for Canton Commission to micro-criticize the school district and for the School Lath to plead for more money.

The push and pull over new taxes

Granting the School Lath taxing authority need not necessarily cause an increase in local taxes. Mayors, City Council members and Commissioners regularly brag nigh proposing "no new taxes" budgets. Schoolhouse Lath members might do the aforementioned. They might not.

More:Mayor Rogero proposes $377M upkeep, no tax hike and Knoxville Higher partnership

The electric current system however, produces the only outcome it could logically produce: a School Lath that claims to be underfunded and a Canton Commission that claims the Schoolhouse Board is a poor steward.

No ane is accountable when funding and spending are separated.

Without taxing dominance, the Schoolhouse Board never has to fully prioritize its goals. "We wanted to give everyone a v percentage pay enhance, fully-fund Project Grad and approve 20 new charter schools, but the Mayor and Commission won't give us the money."

The county can always point to dollar increases in its allocation to the school organisation and ask, "How much more coin is enough?"

Schoolhouse districts with taxing authority are norm

Across the state, schoolhouse districts with taxing authorisation are the norm. Tennessee is only one of 3 states with elected school boards that are legally prohibited from levying taxes. However, there is a state provision in Tennessee that allows a school board to force a referendum on a property revenue enhancement increase to fund schools if two-thirds of the school board members vote for the tax increment.

If the schoolhouse board thinks the organisation is underfunded, it should consider and publicly discuss proposing an increment in the local property tax rate, forcing both the board and the voters to have a stand on all education expenditures.

David Moon, founder and president of Moon Capital Management, may be reached at david@mooncap.com.

Source: https://www.knoxnews.com/story/money/business/2018/05/01/david-moon-knox-county-schools-should-have-taxing-authority/568938002/

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