Teachers? union takes aim at tax cap

The county teachers? union is fighting to get a measure on the November ballot to increase the county property tax cap.

The Teachers Association of Anne Arundel County is collecting signatures to get the measure before voters. The union must gather more than 20,000 signatures to put a measure on the ballot, half by July 12 and the rest by Aug. 12, said Bill Jones, executive director of the association.

The change, the union said, would involve a single word.

County voters overwhelmingly approved a cap on property tax revenues in 1992, limiting annual growth in the amount of money the county can collect to 4.5 percent or the rate of inflation, whichever is less. If the language was changed to say whichever is more, the county could have collected an additional $328.6 million over the $7.3 billion collected over 18 years, Jones said.

The teachers? union has the support of the the Association of Educational Leaders, the Secretaries and Assistants Association of Anne Arundel County, and Council No. 67 of the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees.

?It?s going to be a tough sell. No one, on the surface, likes to pay more taxes,? said Kori Blake, a spokesman for Council 67. ?The current language doesn?t serve the county well. It has put a stranglehold on revenue.?

Already, county property tax rates could go up if the General Assembly passes some of the pending education bills.

Under one bill in the House of Delegates, whenever a county dropped its school funding below the minimum level set by the state, the state would withhold income tax disbursements owed to the county. The state then would give the money to the local school system.

Cpl. O?Brien Atkinson, head of the county?s Fraternal Order of Police, said the police union was scheduled to hear the teachers union?s presentation about the cap next month.

?We fully acknowledge the county has a serious revenue shortage,? Atkinson said.

The county Board of Education is expected to consider whether to support the measure during its next meeting. The board tries to avoid taking positions on funding, but this is a special case, said board President Patricia Nalley.

An effort in 2000 to get the same change on the county ballot failed to gather enough signatures.

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Source: http://www.hometownannapolis.com/cgi-bin/read/2012/03_09-22/SCH

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