© 2024 Maine Public | Registered 501(c)(3) EIN: 22-3171529
Play Live Radio
Next Up:
0:00
0:00
0:00 0:00
Available On Air Stations
Scroll down to see all available streams.
Education resources provided by the Maine Public:PBS LearningMediaSTEM Resource Bank

Supporters Say Education Ballot Measure Would Ease Chronic Underfunding

Debate over a proposed new tax on incomes over $200,000 to pay for additional school funding is getting underway, some four months before voters will decide the issue on the November ballot.

The 3 percent state tax — supporters call it a surcharge — would apply to income earned beyond that $200,000 mark. So someone earning $210,000, for instance, would pay $300 dollars more than if they were subject just to the state income tax.

Members of a coalition called Stand Up for Students say the projected $179 million the measure would raise annually would be dedicated to classroom expenses — teachers and materials — and not to administration.

Somerset County teacher of the year Tamara Ranger says the state’s long history of underfunding education is taking a big toll on Maine kids.

“Over the last seven years our district has closed a community school, consolidated schools and eliminated about 65 teaching positions,” she says. “In the middle school where I teach, we’re no longer able to offer world languages, having cut our French and Spanish positions. We’ve cut a full-time librarian position, a half-time orchestra position. We’ve cut our woods and metals programs.”

Backers say the 96,000 signatures they gathered to get the item on the ballot is strong evidence that Mainers want the Legislature to make good on the intent of a previous ballot measure that required the state to fund 55 percent of public K-12 education costs — a requirement the Legislature routinely ignores in favor of a lower number.

But they will run into opposition from business and Republican interests, chiefly. They say the measure will burden small businesses in Maine that would be hit by the new tax, and that it could drive some at the higher end of Maine’s income picture out of the state altogether.

“You gotta pay the next to highest tax in the country on anything above $200,000. The only state above us then is California. I just don’t see how that works in the state of Maine. We’re not a rich state,” says Rep. Jeff Timberlake, the owner of Ricker Hill Orchards.

Timberlake sits on the Appropriations Committee, and he’s a frequent critic of what he sees as anti-business tax policies. In this case, he says, voters should be aware that even if they approve the new tax, there’s no way to make sure that the Legislature would ultimately follow through with more dollars for public schools.

“If they raise $179 million, I can see the Appropriations Committee cutting what they are supplying [the schools] by $179 million, and putting it to nursing homes or expansion of welfare or any one of another 165 issues that they have.”

John Kosinski, the campaign manager for Stand Up for Students, says supporters are well aware that lawmakers’ feet would need to be held to the fire.

“What we’re going to do across this state is make sure that we’re building a campaign so that after this passes in November we show up to the Legislature in January and require that this money go to schools,” he says. “Fifty-five percent was not funded — this is the solution to that problem.”

While no organized opposition to the measure has emerged yet, the campaign does have some deep pockets on its side, including the union that represents teachers: The Maine Education Association provided initial funding for the Yes on 2 campaign and, more recently, the National Education Association
gave the campaign a $300,000 shot in the arm.

Disclosure: The Maine Education Association represents most of the reporting staff at Maine Public Radio.

A Columbia University graduate, Fred began his journalism career as a print reporter in Vermont, then came to Maine Public in 2001 as its political reporter, as well as serving as a host for a variety of Maine Public Radio and Maine Public Television programs. Fred later went on to become news director for New England Public Radio in Western Massachusetts and worked as a freelancer for National Public Radio and a number of regional public radio stations, including WBUR in Boston and NHPR in New Hampshire.