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Senate Education Committee members debate shifting taxes to ease rising property tax burden
Summary
Members of the Senate Education Committee discussed alternatives to property-tax funding for schools — including higher sales and fuel taxes, reprioritizing existing revenues and a House bill on homestead tax changes — but took no formal action.
Members of the Senate Education Committee spent part of an afternoon in February debating how to reduce pressure on rising property taxes that fund public education, considering options such as modest increases in sales or fuel taxes, reprioritizing current revenue streams and noting a House bill that would split homestead tax responsibility.
The discussion matters because many constituents have complained about climbing property-tax bills; committee members said those concerns are driving interest in alternatives that would spread school funding across broader tax bases.
“People are getting tired of their property taxes going up and up,” said Senator (unnamed), a committee member, describing constituent feedback and arguing for examining sales, fuel and energy levies as possible offsets. “Why haven't we ever looked at, you know, adding a couple more cents to sales tax, add a couple more cents to fuel and energy tax.”
Committee members listed existing revenue sources that already offset property-tax reliance, including the lottery tax and the meals-and-rooms tax. One member noted, “And the sales tax, 100% of the sales tax is 6%.” That remark was offered as context for the committee’s revenue conversation rather than as a settled policy proposal.
A separate committee member referenced an active bill in the state House that would allocate homestead-tax obligations differently. “There is a bill in the house now to split down on homestead taxes part between businesses and second homes,” said Senator (unnamed), a committee member, characterizing the measure as one initiative the Legislature could consider.
Other members urged looking first at how the state allocates the revenue it already collects. “I think, personally, we need to reprioritize the taxes we already charge, the revenue that we already collect to see if there is lower priority items, lower priority than the education of our kids, that we can reallocate,” said Senator (unnamed), a committee member, framing reprioritization as an alternative to raising new taxes.
Several speakers raised practical questions about revenue stability and constraints. One member asked whether surpluses must be returned or could be retained in a capital or rainy-day fund, noting the state’s revenue can be cyclical if the economy weakens. Another estimated the fiscal gap that eliminating a property-tax component could create, saying a substantial amount — “600,000,000 or … I forget how much it was” — would need to be replaced, though that figure was not specified with certainty.
A proposal described by a member last year to move to a single tax rate across income, property and sales — described in committee remarks as sent to the Ways and Means committee — was mentioned as an outside-the-box example that had not advanced. “I decided the plan to [Ways and Means],” the member said, adding that the initiative had not gained support there.
No formal motion, vote or referral resulted from the discussion. Committee members said they expect to continue coordinating with the Senate Finance Committee and with other legislative panels as budget and governance proposals move forward.
The committee scheduled further work and follow-up testimony on related fiscal questions in coming meetings.
