Public education was a major concern of West Virginia’s founders. Article 12 Section 1 of the state constitution states that “The Legislature shall provide, by general law, for a thorough and efficient system of free schools.”
Article 12 Section 6 of the state constitution that specifies that “the school board of any district shall be elected by the voters of the respective district without reference to political party affiliation.”
Two constitutional amendments on the ballot in November could threaten the intent of those provisions.
Amendment 2 would essentially give the legislature to power to eliminate business taxes on equipment and property that now provide over a quarter of funding for counties, cities, and schools. As a sweetener, it would also give them power to eliminate taxes on personal vehicles, although the lion’s share of more than 70 percent would go to businesses, many of which are out of state corporations.
If voters approve this amendment, the legislature could cut property taxes by over $500 million dollars. As things now stand, 66 percent of this revenue funds county school districts. Another 33.5 percent goes to county and municipal governments to provide funding for things like emergency medical services, fire protection, public safety, public libraries and senior citizen centers and other services.
This would end a long tradition of constitutional protections for local services, take authority for property taxes away from local voters and communities, and could impact bonds and levies supported by supermajorities of 60 percent or more of local voters. Currently 44 of West Virginia’s 55 counties fund services through voter-approved levies.
Supporters of Amendment 2 say that local governments will be “made whole” by state funding, but there’s no guarantee of that—and doing so would simply require cuts to state funding for other programs. The budget surpluses the state now enjoys are mostly the result of one-time federal COVID relief funding. Making long term plans based on temporary gains is a bit like counting on lottery winnings in making a family’s budget.
The likely long-term results will be either cuts in public services or regressive tax increases that fall on working class families…or a combination thereof.
As Governor Jim Justice put it, “We’re taking away an income stream and betting on good times forever and putting at risk our schools, our EMS, our firemen, our police and whatever it may be. We have to step back and think about what we are doing.”
And while eliminating those taxes might do significant damage to funding local services, it’s not likely to result in more jobs for West Virginians. State and local taxes make up less than two percent of the cost of doing business, so we’re talking about a fraction of a fraction. Some evidence even suggests that cuts in equipment taxes can result in automation and loss of manufacturing jobs.
Amendment 4 would threaten the constitutional intent of school governance without regard to party affiliation by giving partisan politicians control over classrooms and taking authority away from educators, school boards, parents, and voters. This could turn schools into political battlegrounds, stifle learning, create a climate of intimidation, impose a narrow range of ideological and religious perspectives, and lead to censorship and book banning.
What both proposed amendments have in common is the centralization of power by a partisan legislature at the expense of local voters, governments, and school boards.
For those reasons, we are compelled to express our opposition to Amendments 2 and 4.
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