One new wrinkle in the property tax abatement game is the electric utility deregulation angle now going on in all but a few states. Check it out. Ten million here in county X abated tax revenue, twenty million there in county Y abated tax revenue, maybe one, two, three hundred million in abated tax revenue in a major metro area---pretty soon your talking serious money. On just on one part of the overall scam.
Btw, my political pal "Seatbeltski" is really kissing up to Bob Taft on this issue---"Seatbeltski" has a chance to double or triple his income if he says enough nice things about electric utility deregulation. Seriously.
Tom Lehman
Gregory Geboski wrote:
> << If corporations in their various forms paid their fair share of property
> taxes, there would be very few school funding problems anywhere in the
> USA. >>
>
> No, I think Leo Casey is right on this one. The problem with property taxes
> (which are certainly more progressive than sales taxes) is their unequal
> distribution effects. There are all kinds of social problems that could be
> alleviated if corporations paid more taxes--say, at the Eisenhower-era
> level--and, of course, if they had less power generally. But corporate
> property tax abatements, while certainly loathsome, can hardly account for
> the total underfunding of schools.
>
> Most communities don't have large corporate sites that can provide a steady
> stream of corporate property taxes. In fact, the consolidation of capital
> into fewer and fewer larger corporations means that this form of revenue can
> only be expected to decrease. (The loss of small-to-medium-size industry,
> while invoking "interesting trends" on a national-world level, can have
> devastating effects on a local job market and tax base. We know this,
> right?)
>
> In a related matter, I don't know who out there has gone to any local
> housing planning meetings lately, but the thing now is to treat children as
> bothersome or vile little tax-stealers who must be kept out of a community
> so that the municipality won't be forced to provide schools for them. I'm
> hearing this from developers and government officials in the largely
> residential urban working-class city where I live, so my guess is it's
> probably even more prominient in the 'burbs.
>
> ----Original Message Follows----
> From: Tom Lehman <TLehman at lor.net>
> Reply-To: lbo-talk at lists.panix.com
> To: lbo-talk at lists.panix.com
> Subject: Re: Property Taxes and Public Education Financing
> Date: Tue, 21 Nov 2000 22:17:26 -0500
>
> The big problem here is corporate tax abatement. Neither of the major
> parties are willing to challenge the corporations on this issue.
> Because the corporations will either threaten to leave a jurisdiction if
> they don't get it or not locate in a jurisdiction unless they do get it.
>
> I'd be willing to bet Leo, that you couldn't even find out how much
> property tax has been abated in the school districts your local
> represents! ...
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