Thursday, March 28, 2024
Hawai'i Free Press

Current Articles | Archives

Sunday, February 25, 2018
Teachers Union Grabs for Billion Dollar Slush Fund
By Tom Yamachika @ 4:00 AM :: 5378 Views :: Education K-12, Taxes

A Penny for Education

by Tom Yamachika, President, Tax Foundation Hawaii

One of the bills making its way through our legislative system this session is one that would create a special fund for public education, and then funnel to that fund twenty-five percent of all the money that our General Excise Tax brings in.

“25% of the four percent tax is just a penny out of every dollar,” proponents of the bill may be saying. “A penny for education. Aren’t our keiki worth even that much?”

First, let’s figure out how much money we are really talking about here.

I went to the Senate Education Committee to testify on the bill.

“We’re talking about a LOT of money to earmark for public education,” I said. “Between 800 million and a billion dollars.”

“Times four percent, right?” one senator asked.

“No,” I said. “The GET brings in between 3 and 4 billion dollars a year. This is after the four percent tax rate is applied. You need to remember that this tax brings in nearly half of all general fund collections every year.”

“Those aren’t the numbers I have,” the senator said.

The committee chair was expressionless. She knew exactly how much was at stake, as did the teachers’ union. “We want to make sure that this in addition to the funds that are appropriated for public education now,” the union had said.

So how much is $800 million? If we had that amount of money in pennies for education, those pennies would weigh roughly 3 grams per penny times 800 million times 100 pennies in a dollar, or 240 million kilograms. That’s 260,000 U.S. tons, which is quite a bit more than the weight of the Sears Tower in Chicago (222,400 tons).

That’s a lot of money. We’d want to make sure there were proper controls and oversight before plopping all of that cash in our Department of Education’s lap.

Second, isn’t this something we tried before? For a very long time — for more than twenty years, in fact — our legislature earmarked a large amount of money from the GET every year. For most of that period, $90 million a year went to the state educational facilities special fund. In theory, that money was supposed to fund repairs and capital improvements to our schools between 1989, when the earmark was enacted, to 2013, when it was repealed.  In 2013, our Department of Budget and Finance said:

“Over the years, capital improvement projects appropriated for education facilities have generally been authorized and funded with [special funds], which are then 100% capitalized through the issuance of general obligation bonds. We recognize the need to address the maintenance and upgrades of educational facilities; however, given the economic condition of the State and concerns on national funding support levels, we must address our school funding requirements within available funding resources.

“Thus, capital improvement project requests by departments should be reviewed on a statewide basis and allocated to programs based on statewide priorities.”

During the last 25 or so years, did our educational facilities get better as a result of having the state educational facilities special fund? Was the lack of having a special fund proven to be a reason why, in the past few years, our kids were getting cooked in our sweltering classrooms? Do the problems in our classrooms have anything to do with special funds at all?

A penny for your thoughts.

Links

TEXT "follow HawaiiFreePress" to 40404

Register to Vote

2aHawaii

808 Silent Majority

Aloha Pregnancy Care Center

AntiPlanner

Antonio Gramsci Reading List

A Place for Women in Waipio

Ballotpedia Hawaii

Broken Trust

Build More Hawaiian Homes Working Group

Christian Homeschoolers of Hawaii

Cliff Slater's Second Opinion

DVids Hawaii

FIRE

Fix Oahu!

Frontline: The Fixers

Genetic Literacy Project

Grassroot Institute

Habele.org

Hawaii Aquarium Fish Report

Hawaii Aviation Preservation Society

Hawaii Catholic TV

Hawaii Christian Coalition

Hawaii Cigar Association

Hawaii ConCon Info

Hawaii Debt Clock

Hawaii Defense Foundation

Hawaii Family Forum

Hawaii Farmers and Ranchers United

Hawaii Farmer's Daughter

Hawaii Federalist Society

Hawaii Federation of Republican Women

Hawaii History Blog

Hawaii Homeschool Association

Hawaii Jihadi Trial

Hawaii Legal News

Hawaii Legal Short-Term Rental Alliance

Hawaii Matters

Hawaii's Partnership for Appropriate & Compassionate Care

Hawaii Public Charter School Network

Hawaii Rifle Association

Hawaii Shippers Council

Hawaii Smokers Alliance

Hawaii State Data Lab

Hawaii Together

HIEC.Coop

HiFiCo

Hiram Fong Papers

Homeschool Legal Defense Hawaii

Honolulu Moms for Liberty

Honolulu Navy League

Honolulu Traffic

House Minority Blog

Imua TMT

Inouye-Kwock, NYT 1992

Inside the Nature Conservancy

Inverse Condemnation

Investigative Project on Terrorism

July 4 in Hawaii

Kakaako Cares

Keep Hawaii's Heroes

Land and Power in Hawaii

Legislative Committee Analysis Tool

Lessons in Firearm Education

Lingle Years

Managed Care Matters -- Hawaii

Malama Pregnancy Center of Maui

MentalIllnessPolicy.org

Military Home Educators' Network Oahu

Missile Defense Advocacy

MIS Veterans Hawaii

NAMI Hawaii

Natatorium.org

National Christian Foundation Hawaii

National Parents Org Hawaii

NFIB Hawaii News

No GMO Means No Aloha

Not Dead Yet, Hawaii

NRA-ILA Hawaii

Oahu Alternative Transport

Obookiah

OHA Lies

Opt Out Today

OurFutureHawaii.com

Patients Rights Council Hawaii

PEACE Hawaii

People vs Machine

Practical Policy Institute of Hawaii

Pritchett Cartoons

Pro-GMO Hawaii

P.U.E.O.

RailRipoff.com

Rental by Owner Awareness Assn

ReRoute the Rail

Research Institute for Hawaii USA

Rick Hamada Show

RJ Rummel

Robotics Organizing Committee

School Choice in Hawaii

SenatorFong.com

Sink the Jones Act

Statehood for Guam

Talking Tax

Tax Foundation of Hawaii

The Real Hanabusa

Time Out Honolulu

Trustee Akina KWO Columns

UCC Truths

US Tax Foundation Hawaii Info

VAREP Honolulu

Waagey.org

West Maui Taxpayers Association

What Natalie Thinks

Whole Life Hawaii

Yes2TMT