School finance traps
A warm “howdy” to our western neighbors from Midland for challenging the state in court over its outdated public education finance system
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The current setup traps school districts in two ways:
The first trap is inflation. The per-student basic allotment isn’t indexed to inflation. When inflation spikes, the purchasing power for school districts plummet, forcing local boards to ask voters for tax increases or make cuts
The second trap is recapture, known as “Robin Hood.” The state reclaims local property revenue from property-wealthy districts to redistribute elsewhere under the guise of equity. This frustrates local taxpayers who watch their hard-earned dollars leave their communities
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Jesse L Howell
Project not-so marvelous
San Antonio City Hall folks have discovered there will be a major budget deficit for the next couple of years and are considering cuts to worthwhile programs, some of which are purportedly not performing as envisioned, to mitigate lost funding
How about dropping the Project Marvel plan? What a savings that could bring!
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Has anyone explained why the Frost Bank Arena, the current home for the Spurs, is no longer suitable? Has there been a logical, commonsense explanation why a new arena needs to be placed in an already overcrowded downtown, just a short walk from the Alamodome?
And don’t forget about the planned baseball stadium on the western side of downtown. What a nightmare these new high-dollar facilities will bring in terms of trying to navigate the area. Our tax dollars will be funding part of these projects, be it through property taxes, sales taxes or hotel and occupancy taxes. Sports entities desiring new venues should pay their own way
Steve Spear
