[WestMALocals] strong schools, fair taxes, and health care for all [op-ed]

[Nat Fortune]

Here's an op-ed I wrote that recently appeared in the Greenfield 
Recorder. Yours for peace --Nat

> The Recorder, Greenfield MA
> Wednesday 30 March 2005
>
> Nathanael Fortune, My Turn (op-ed column)
>
> FINDING WAYS TO PAY FOR SCHOOLS:
> suggestions for changes that would benefit all
>
> There’s an old Polish proverb I think of every year when it comes time 
> to pay for our public schools: only the rich can afford cheap things! 
> For some, a cheaply made item can be easily replaced when broken, but 
> the rest of us cannot afford to invest any less than is needed for 
> quality.
>
> Our public schools are our towns' biggest investment, and in the long 
> run, none of us can afford a future built on underfunded schools. In 
> the absence of adequate state funding, however, the money that pays 
> for our schools has increasingly come from local taxes, fees and 
> overrides. Isn’t there a better way to pay for schools worth paying 
> for?
>
> Here are three ideas we can't afford not to try:
>
> (1) Make our taxes fairer and more efficient. Too much of what we 
> contribute towards our schools comes from those who can least afford 
> it. We are at the point where the 50% of us earning less than $45,000 
> a year pay twice as large a share of our income for our schools as 
> those earning more than $450,000 a year. That’s twice as large a 
> percentage of our income towards state and local taxes. Every cut in 
> the income tax rate or hike in fees or the sales tax increases this 
> imbalance. Like little Robin Hoods in reverse, our legislative leaders 
> are literally taking from the poor to pay for the rich.
>
> Want to lower state income taxes for those of us not earning six 
> figure salaries and still increase state revenues for our schools? 
> It’s easy: double all personal and dependent care deductions and raise 
> the tax rate to 6%. A single head of household with an income of 
> $60,000 and one dependent would pay less than she does now. A married 
> couple with an income of up to $80,000 and two dependents would pay 
> less than they do now. And we would all have an extra $150 million a 
> year for our schools. Don’t believe me? Try it out on your own state 
> taxes this year, or ask the person preparing your taxes.
>
> (2) Ask corporations with out of state operations to pay their fair 
> share. Want to increase funding for our schools by another $400 
> million a year? Then adopt “combined reporting” and “throwback” rules 
> to prevent corporations from hiding profits out of state ($150 
> million) and repeal the special “single sales factor” tax breaks for 
> Raytheon and Fidelity ($250 million). Don’t believe me? Ask the 
> Department of Revenue.
>
> (3) Provide affordable healthcare for all. Health insurance premiums 
> are rising at double-digit rates and are devouring school, town and 
> state budgets alike. The most effective way to stabilize our school 
> budgets would be to stabilize the cost of health care. We can’t do 
> this by importing a few affordable drugs from Canada: we need to 
> import the system that makes the drugs affordable.
> It is time to lower our costs and increase our medical security by 
> instituting a single-payer plan for health insurance. Don't believe 
> me? Ask my recently re-elected state legislators: Rep. Steve Kulik and 
> Sen. Stan Rosenberg. And while you're at it, ask them to support 
> fairer taxes as well!
>
> We really can afford strong schools, fair taxes, and health care for 
> all. The real question is, can we afford anything less?
>
> Nathanael Fortune, Whatley
>
> Nathanael Fortune is a member of the Whately School Committee and was 
> the 2004 Green-Rainbow Party Candidate for State Representative in the 
> 1st Franklin District.