School Board treds lightly on tax question

By Emily Richmond (contact)

Friday, Dec. 3, 2004 | 9:42 a.m.

Clark County School Board members dipped cautious toes into the property tax cap debate Thursday, venturing no deeper than to agree that the issue posed serious questions about the future of education funding in Nevada and merited careful study.

School Board member Denise Brodsky asked for the discussion so that she could gauge the will of her colleagues before being asked to consider the issue at the Dec. 9 meeting of the Southern Nevada Regional Planning Commission, of which she is co-chairwoman.

Joyce Haldeman, executive director of community and government relations for the Clark County School District, said it's unknown exactly how changes to the property tax formula -- including the 6 percent cap proposed by Clark County Assessor Mark Schofield -- would impact education funding. But it could be devastating to schools in the state's rural counties, which would also have to abide by the cap if it's approved by the Legislature, Haldeman said.

The Legislature determines how much each of the state's 17 school districts will receive in education funding. The state is supposed to make up the difference between what counties generate locally through sales taxes and property taxes and the guaranteed minimum per-pupil funding amount.

Increases in property taxes have provided Clark County with a windfall in recent years, allowing the district to rebuild a rainy day fund that's been depleted since 2001. If the 6 percent cap had been in effect for the 2004-05 fiscal year, the district would be receiving $20 million fewer dollars, Haldeman said.

The School District is different from the other members of the coalition, all municipal agencies with the ability to generate revenue from other means if their share of property tax dollars were curtailed, Haldeman said.

"We're in a unique position," Haldeman said. "We're basically at the mercy of others who decide how much we get."

The seven-member School Board voted unanimously to support a proposed resolution by the coalition that states "the issues of property taxation merits the utmost consideration and review by the Clark County Assessor and the Nevada Legislature."

The unanimous vote came after some initial opposition by School Board member Ruth Johnson, who questioned the need to take any public position, however benign, at this early stage.

"I don't see the point in doing it. I don't think it (the resolution) is very well written," Johnson said, noting that the Clark County assessor is named three times in the brief document.

"It's Mr. Schofield, Mr. Schofield, Mr. Scofield. The impression to anyone reading it is we support Mark Scofield and his proposal."

School Board member Sheila Moulton asked that Brodsky urge the other coalition members to consider an addendum to the resolution, calling for a range of tax relief proposals, not just the 6 percent cap on property taxes proposed by Schofield, be considered by lawmakers and the public.

"We need to truly address the idea of total tax reform, not just property taxes," Moulton said.

Several members of the public addressed the School Board during the public comment portion of the meeting, expressing their willingness to support the cause of education even if it means paying more in property taxes.

Javier Cabrera, who has one child in kindergarten and another in sixth grade, said he worries that Nevada continually ranks near the bottom of the list when it comes to education funding and student achievement. Schools need more funding, not less, to combat these issues, Cabrera said.

"We're always hearing our schools are not so good," Cabrera said. "And my children's classes have 35, 40 students in them. That's way too many."

Tyronda Stewart, whose son is still two years away from entering kindergarten, told the School Board she was willing to pay more in taxes even though her son is not yet a student.

"We all have to pay our fair share for the good of the community," Stewart said.

If the district is forced to make cuts to programs and services, as it did in 1981 and 1991 when sales tax revenue fell short of expectations, those "cuts may not heal," Stewart said.

The immediate effects of a property tax cap could be relief for homeowners, but in the long run it could hurt the public agencies that depend on those dollars, said Clark County Schools Superintendent Carlos Garcia.

"We need to look down the road at all of our plans, for programs, new buildings -- everything," Garcia said. "That's why it's so important that we're all very cautious about how we approach these kinds of proposals and really look at every side of the equation."