Sen. Pat Jones has been fighting to bring more money into Utah’s schools for more than a decade. Now, in her final year on Utah’s Capitol Hill, her plan may have a chance.
A Senate committee approved SB 118 on Monday, which caps the number of exemptions a family can claim on their Utah tax return at 2 – meaning larger families will end up paying more in taxes. Since Utah income taxes fund schools, that means more than $250 million annually for education.
“You have a chunk of people who, the more kids they have, the less they pay,” says Jones. “There are many families that have so many deductions and credits that they literally pay no income tax, which all goes to education. They don’t contribute to schools, but they get a refund back at the end of the year. That’s inherently unfair. All of us should have skin in the game and invest in our neighborhood schools.”
Jones’ plan would keep those monies at the local level, allowing the local community council to decide what happens with the cash. A high school would get about $700,000 per year, a middle school would see nearly $400,000, while every elementary school in the state would get around $300,000 every year.
“All of the polling I’ve ever done shows people are willing to pay a little bit more in taxes to fund schools if they know that money is going to stay with their neighborhood school. It would be so helpful to have a broader base of options – reading specialists, or counselors. Whatever that school needs, they would decide on a local level. We’re not talking a few dollars, this is real money.”
Jones says she’s thrilled that she has been able to shift the debate over education funding on the Hill.
“If I can leave the legislature at the end of this year knowing that now we have this on the table. So many years I’ve heard legislators say they want to put money into schools, but they don’t know how. I have shown them one way to do this. My bill does not increase the tax rate. All it does is takes away more than two exemptions that people currently get.”
