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Posthumus says he'll
fight to keep Proposal A the way it is
by Josh Fahlsing, The Huron Daily Tribune, 08/30/2002
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www.bridges4kids.org.
Lt. Gov. Dick Posthumus, the Republican nominee for governor,
visited Bad Axe Thursday morning as part of his statewide
"Keeping the Promise Bus Tour."
Posthumus spoke to a group of about 40 people at the Franklin
Inn about his campaign pledge to "protect the promise" of
Proposal A.
Michigan voters approved Proposal A, a plan to cut and cap
property taxes, increase funding for public schools, and
provide fairness in funding to school districts, in 1994.
Under Proposal A, funding for schools is determined on a
per-pupil basis. Simply, the more kids a district has, the
more money it receives from the state.
Proponents of changing Proposal A say it needs to be adjusted
to allow poorer districts to raise money to make capital
improvements, and to help those districts facing declining
enrollment.
Recently, the state board of education and other government
officials have studied ways to "tweak" Proposal A in order to
generate more money for school districts that are lagging
economically. Posthumus claims to be the only candidate in
this year's race for governor who would work to leave Proposal
A unchanged.
Posthumus believes that changing Proposal A would mean raising
taxes. "I will not break the promise of Proposal A to keep our
taxes down and provide steady funding for our schools," he
said. "My opponent says she wants to 'tweak' Proposal A. You
don't need a decoder ring to know that means higher property
taxes."
One way the state board of education has examined changing
Proposal A without raising taxes would allow school districts
to spread the impact of lost students out over a number of
years. The district would receive a percentage of the $6,700
foundation grant for each student lost, and that percentage
would gradually shrink over the course of a few years.
Posthumus said while this is a possibility to help districts
with declining enrollment, it is not an issue relative to
Proposal A.
"That's a whole different issue. You can't fund kids that
don't exist," he said. "You've got to provide a transition for
declining enrollment districts. You need to spread that out.
What you could do is take the preceding count and average that
in. Maybe say 75 percent (of the student count) based on this
year's count, and 25 percent based on last year."
Proposal A, Posthumus added, was meant to gradually close the
inequity gap between rich and poor school districts.
"Prior to Proposal A, the difference (between rich and poor
districts) was about $7,000 per student," he said. "Proposal A
wasn't meant to (make) change quickly. It was meant to first
bring the bottom up, and even out slowly."
Posthumus' Bad Axe stop was part of a four-day tour which will
see him visit almost two dozen cities around the state. He
told the audience at the Franklin Inn that he feels it is
important for the governor to visit different communities and
learn about them firsthand.
"I love Michigan. It is a great state, a beautiful state, but
it's diverse," he said. "The needs in Bad Axe are very
different than the needs in Benton Harbor. It's critical the
governor be out there. I don't think you can sit in Lansing
and make decisions."
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