Those onerous property taxes, part 3

April 16, 2006

VALLEY VOICES/ Harry Yost

The date for a single, all-encompassing school bond election in the Mat-Su is set for May 2. Information about the election, including how to obtain an absentee ballot, can be found at the borough Web site, www.matsugov.us, or by calling the borough clerk's office at 745-9683.

As outlined in a borough advertisement in a recent Frontiersman, the amount of the bond is $39.7 million. That ad also provided the names of the four schools the money is to be spent on, along with information that the state will &#8220reimburse” the Mat-Su Borough for only 60 percent of the costs. If the Legislature does not come up with at least 60 percent, the bonds won't be issued.

It seems I was in error in a previous column on one point: It wouldn't take a constitutional amendment to change the system of school support now used in this state. It would simply take an act of the Legislature to change existing law. (Title 29 of the Alaska Statutes.)

But, we would lose local control of our schools, you say? That's the joke of the century.

Ask any school board member or school administrator how much of their time is spent complying with state and federal laws pertaining to schools. A large amount of verbal hand-wringing is being done right now in Alaska education circles about how to comply with the No Child Left Behind Act, a federal law requiring uniform standards in schools all across the United States.

A major problem in Alaska seems to be, we don't have enough &#8220qualified” teachers. &#8220Qualified,” according to federal bureaucrats, means the teacher has a degree in every subject they teach.

This is virtually impossible in any school where a teacher handles more than one subject and/or age group. Bush schools in particular have problems with the rule, as most of their teachers not only teach more than one subject, but more than one grade level.

It seems the politicians and educrats have forgotten about the old one-room school where one teacher taught all eight grades and every subject, and the kids still learned everything they needed to know to function as citizens of this country. (And, in many cases, in less than nine months a year.)

Any change in the law to require the state to fund the schools completely would also require changes restricting how much any taxing entity could collect from property taxes. Ideally, property taxes should only cover those items pertaining directly to said property - police and fire protection, and perhaps some road maintenance. As it is now, LIDs would have to be voted on by the residents of that district.

A restriction on how property is evaluated for tax purposes would have to be included in any changes in the laws. Some jurisdictions (not in Alaska) do not allow any increase in assessed valuation beyond the price the property last sold for. Simply, if you bought a piece of property, you would pay the same tax every year as long as you owned that property. If you sold it for more than you paid for it, the new owner would pay taxes based on the new price for as long as they owned it.

Along with restricting the amount of property taxes to be paid should come a restriction on one of the most onerous parts of the existing property tax laws - that of seizing the property if the taxes are in arrears. Right now, if you fail to pay your property taxes for three years, the borough can seize it and sell it for the amount of the owed taxes. Or, worse, anyone can pay the back taxes and wind up owning your property for pennies on the dollar.

Most people buying a home pay their property taxes as part of the monthly payments and never think about how much the taxes are. Several people I have talked to in the past few months have been astounded to find out as much as half of their monthly payments are taxes, and they keep going up.

Shocks you, doesn't it?

Harry Yost lives in Palmer. His Valley Voices guest opinion column appears every four weeks.