US Presidency
1972

They threaten communities because property taxes, which more than doubled in the 10 years from 1960 to ' 70, have become one of the most oppressive and discriminatory of all taxes, hitting most cruelly at the elderly and the retired; and they threaten schools, as hard pressed voters understandably reject new bond issues at the polls. The problem has been given even greater urgency by four recent court decisions, which have held that the conventional method of financing schools through local property taxes is discriminatory and unconstitutional. Nearly two years ago, I named a special Presidential commission to study the problems of school finance, and I also directed the federal departments to look into the same problems. We are developing comprehensive proposals to meet these problems. This issue involves two complex and interrelated sets of problems: support of the schools and the basic relationships of federal, state, and local governments in any tax reforms.