On June 11th, H.B. 1776, a proposal to end school property taxes, came up for a vote in the House Finance Committee. The Committee believed the proposal contained too many unanswered questions and were not convinced it would raise the necessary revenue to replace all school property taxes. They tabled the bill by a 13 to 11 count (one abstention). Whether or not the bill will be brought back in the future remains to be seen. But it does raise an interesting question: Where and how should school property tax reform begin? The focus should be on the driver of high taxes, to wit: rapidly rising spending.
