Opinion ID: 2116901
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 4

Heading: policy implications

Text: This Court's interpretation of § 29 should not, of course, be swayed by the perceived policy implications. Our task is simply to arrive at the most persuasive and intellectually honest interpretation of § 29 that we can. But I find it nevertheless appropriate to point out, in view of the policy arguments raised by the parties, the amici curiae, and my colleagues, that the local-to-local interpretation of § 29, aside from being inherently unpersuasive, would, as the state argues, lead to irrational and inequitable consequences. Under the local-to-local approach, the pattern of state funding of individual school districts would, to a large extent, be permanently frozen according to the pattern existing in 1978, when the Headlee Amendment was adopted. Not only would the local-to-local approach tend to preserve whatever funding inequities may have existed in 1978, but it would hinder the state from responding to even more pronounced inequities that may have developed over the last fourteen years, and that may continue to develop into the foreseeable future, as a result of changing economic and demographic circumstances within districts across the state. [11] By adopting the Headlee Amendment, the voters clearly intended to place strict limits on the growth of state taxation and spending. By including § 29, the voters clearly intended to prevent the state from evading the Headlee Amendment's restrictions by shifting its overall funding responsibilities onto local governments. But there is nothing in the language or background of the Headlee Amendment to support the conclusion that the voters intended to permanently freeze the pattern of state funding among school districts or other units of local government that happened to exist in 1978. I do not believe that Michigan voters intended to permanently immunize relatively wealthy school districts from the possible effects of funding equalization or redistribution schemes. I am aware of no evidence that such issues played any role at all in the debate or adoption of the Headlee Amendment. In any event, the amendment itself cannot fairly be read to require such a result.