An Education Tax

Bob Warren highlighted in his editorial (EW, 5/30) some of the concerns about the value of the MUPTE tax exemption in developing our community. He wonders if the developer benefits really have provided all the good they was supposed to.  

A good question. But one of the sure results of MUPTE was that it took money away from our state education budget. Let me show you how.

About 50 percent of our county property tax goes to education. The state Legislature covers the education bill with about two-thirds property tax revenue. The other third comes from income tax and other sources.

That’s what they fight over every year. That is why we underfund state education every year. And that has been so for the past 20 or 30 years. It is predicted that this will be the case in future years.  

I feel that putting many “home owners” in tall buildings will aggravate this problem even more — especially if there is a MUPTE exemption on that property.

Trying to pay for the increasing needs of education with property taxes is a losing system. It’s a broken system. 

A sales tax — dedicated — in the state constitution could cover not only 4J but also pre kindergarten and a couple years at community college. We could call it an Education Tax.

Bob Cassidy

Eugene