WEAC Survey: Revenue Caps & School Spending

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WEAC:

The Wisconsin Education Association Council and Wisconsin Association of School District Administrators annual survey of school administrators uncovered a new trend in the 2003-2004 school year: districts are being forced to cut academic programs because of state-imposed revenue controls. Revenue controls severely limit the funds school districts can raise and spend.

Local Property Taxes Generate the Most Government Cash

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As 2004 draws to a close, the the State Department of Revenue and local media has published several interesting tax articles:

  • Wisconsin Department of Revenue Tax Incidence Study – PDF full Study.
  • Matt Pommer discussed the DOR’s study:

    The biggest bite to Wisconsin taxpayers comes from the property tax, which generates 41.7 percent of all tax collections, a new state study finds.
    But many lower-income property taxpayers are not using the credits available to save them money, the Department of Revenue report said.
    “Property taxes were regressive across all household groups,” the study says. The poorest 20 percent paid an average 5.3 percent of their incomes in property taxes, while the highest income groups spent an average of 4 percent of their incomes on property taxes.

  • Avrum Lank & Steve Walters do the same:

    The state Department of Revenue report, released today, calls the system that collected $15.1 billion in state and local taxes in 2001 “mildly progressive across households.” Officials said the 2001 tax burden was studied because the tax code hasn’t been rewritten since and complete data was available for that year.
    Overall, property and sales taxes tend to hit low-income households hardest but are “offset” by deductions, graduated tax rates and breaks built into the state income tax system, the report adds. It defined a “progressive” tax system as one in which “households with greater income pay a larger share of their income in taxes than poorer households.”

USPS Kiosk Takes Your Photo

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“According to FOIA documents obtained by EPIC new Postal Service self-service postage machines take portrait-style photographs of customers and retain them for 30 days.” IBM is the contractor behind the kiosks. Note that the kiosk is supposed to not complete the transaction if it determines the photograph has been compromised, so simply covering the camera is unlikely to work. As the cost of cameras and digital storage approaches zero, is it inevitable that every machine you interact with will take your photograph and store it? Via Slashdot.

DC Politicians Display Smarts in Their Baseball Stadium Deal

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Interesting contrast to the Miller Park scheme hatched in Milwaukee & Madison some years ago, DC Common Council Chairman Linda Cropp has added some reality to the District’s deal with Major League Baseball:

At the John A. Wilson Building, anxiety over the future of baseball in Washington was evident all day. Mayor Anthony A. Williams (D) pronounced during his morning news conference that the deal was “in great, great jeopardy.” Council Chairman Linda W. Cropp (D), the architect of the legislative amendment that required private funding, said she was “looking to reduce the cost and risk for the District.”
“I keep hearing that we had a deal with baseball,” Cropp said. “Well, I have had a 30-year-plus deal with the citizens of this city. That deal trumps any other consideration with Major League Baseball.”

David Nakamura and Thomas Heath