Opinion ID: 1723051
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: The $600 gap

Text: The property-poor districts point out that the $600 advantage enjoyed by the wealthiest districts at a $1.50 tax rate is an inherent, permanent part of the system established by Senate Bill 7. For each additional penny of tax effort between $0.86 and $1.50, the State guarantees school districts a yield of $20.55 per weighted student; but the wealthiest districtsthose with property wealth of $280,000 per studentwill be able to raise $28.00 per weighted student from their own tax bases. When multiplied over the full 64-cent range of Tier 2, this difference in yield, combined with the unequalized distribution of other funds, [11] leads to a systemic gap of up to $600 per weighted student at a tax rate of $1.50 between the wealthiest districts and all other districts. The property-poor districts argue that this gap will leave them with a permanent educational disadvantage. However, the property-poor districts' complaint that the $600 gap renders Senate Bill 7 inefficient is premised on an erroneous view of the meaning of efficiency. The State's duty to provide districts with substantially equal access to revenue applies only to the provision of funding necessary for a general diffusion of knowledge. Although the Legislature has chosen to equalize funding up to a tax rate of $1.50, the evidence established that, currently, all districts can attain the funding for a general diffusion of knowledge at a lower tax rate. Property-poor and property-rich districts presently can attain the revenue necessary to provide suitably for a general diffusion of knowledge at tax rates of approximately $1.31 and $1.22, respectively. [12] Thus, our constitutional inquiry must focus on that disparity, rather than on the $600 gap that occurs at a $1.50 tax rate. The disparity in tax rates has been dramatically reduced since the time of Edgewood I. Furthermore, Tier 2 eliminates such tax rate disparity for 85 percent of the students in the State by providing all districts with a $20.55 guaranteed yield. All districts are able to provide for a general diffusion of knowledge, but property-poor districts must tax at a slightly higher rate than property-rich districts to do so. When the focus is placed on the rate differential rather than on the gap in funding, it becomes evident that the existing disparity in access to revenue is not so great that it renders Senate Bill 7 unconstitutional.