Comments on: Does CEA care more about school funding or political allies? http://blog.ednewscolorado.org/2010/03/12/does-cea-care-more-about-school-funding-or-political-allies/ EdNewsColorado Blog Thu, 09 Sep 2010 11:50:39 -0600 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.0 By: Andres http://blog.ednewscolorado.org/2010/03/12/does-cea-care-more-about-school-funding-or-political-allies/comment-page-1/#comment-6117 Andres Tue, 16 Mar 2010 18:56:37 +0000 http://blog.ednewscolorado.org/?p=4800#comment-6117 Ben - tell us something we don't know. Nobody likes taxes...except liberal politicians who are somehow exempt from having to live with the same tax burdens that the rest of us pay in sales taxes. Formulas conjured up by free market think tanks and their ilk that predict dire consequences for new taxes historically almost never come to fruition. Go back to the apocolypse that was supposed to happen when the progressive federal income tax was introduced. I agree, we do need to look more at progressive taxes as revenue sources - rather than regressive sales taxes - but state and local governments are very limited in their ability to explore those options. Ben – tell us something we don’t know. Nobody likes taxes…except liberal politicians who are somehow exempt from having to live with the same tax burdens that the rest of us pay in sales taxes. Formulas conjured up by free market think tanks and their ilk that predict dire consequences for new taxes historically almost never come to fruition. Go back to the apocolypse that was supposed to happen when the progressive federal income tax was introduced. I agree, we do need to look more at progressive taxes as revenue sources – rather than regressive sales taxes – but state and local governments are very limited in their ability to explore those options.

]]> By: Todd Engdahl http://blog.ednewscolorado.org/2010/03/12/does-cea-care-more-about-school-funding-or-political-allies/comment-page-1/#comment-6114 Todd Engdahl Tue, 16 Mar 2010 17:36:30 +0000 http://blog.ednewscolorado.org/?p=4800#comment-6114 Without commenting one way or the other on Ben's opinions about the CEA, it should be noted that the CEA's original post (and therefore Ben's quoting of it) contain erroneous information about the State Education Fund. Base funding for the SEF comes from one-third of 1 percent of income taxes, not sales taxes. It's also misleading to say the SEF is the "first source" for state school funding. Some 86 percent of state school aid comes from the general fund, which is supported by a variety of taxes, including the sales tax, which supplies about 30 percent of the general fund. So, state-collected sales taxes provide a minority share of state support to schools, and they intermingled with other sources, not dedicated in any way to education. In Colorado the majority of sales taxes are collected locally - by counties, cities and some special districts like RTD. School districts, by the way, don't get local property taxes - only property taxes and part of the "specific ownership" taxes on vehicles, which is considered a form of property tax. Without commenting one way or the other on Ben’s opinions about the CEA, it should be noted that the CEA’s original post (and therefore Ben’s quoting of it) contain erroneous information about the State Education Fund.

Base funding for the SEF comes from one-third of 1 percent of income taxes, not sales taxes. It’s also misleading to say the SEF is the “first source” for state school funding. Some 86 percent of state school aid comes from the general fund, which is supported by a variety of taxes, including the sales tax, which supplies about 30 percent of the general fund.

So, state-collected sales taxes provide a minority share of state support to schools, and they intermingled with other sources, not dedicated in any way to education. In Colorado the majority of sales taxes are collected locally – by counties, cities and some special districts like RTD. School districts, by the way, don’t get local property taxes – only property taxes and part of the “specific ownership” taxes on vehicles, which is considered a form of property tax.

]]>