Beebe Opinion Quells TIF Mania (Editorial)

We weren’t surprised when Attorney General Mike Beebe issued an opinion on Jan. 11 saying a 25-mill statewide property tax to fund school operations couldn’t be used for tax increment financing districts.

Taking money from schools to fund anything else in Arkansas rankles a bunch of people, and rightfully so. It’s especially irritating to folks in south Arkansas when wealthier cities like Rogers want to use that money to build roads so people can get to its new hotels, restaurants and malls.

But as Rogers Mayor Steve Womack said, we can’t figure out why the Legislature would have written this law to exclude the 25 mills. Otherwise, it provides little incentive for development.

We think the confusion stems from the two laws that allowed TIFs in Arkansas. Amendment 78 of 2000 said TIFs could be used for “blighted areas.” A year later, Act 1197 said TIFs were also “for discouraging the loss of commerce, industry or employment.” That opened the door for every town in the state to establish a TIF district. State Sen. Jim Argue, D-Little Rock, says that wasn’t the law’s intention.

Womack isn’t happy about tax money from booming Northwest Arkansas going to the Delta. But we remember a time when the tables were turned, a time when taxes on Delta farmland helped fund education in the Ozarks.

It’s a territorial thing, but we’re all Arkansans. What goes around eventually comes around, but Womack said he needs new roads now, not 10 years from now. Obviously, Rogers will have to find another way to fund its infrastructure.

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A new Rand Corp. report says California’s public school system lags behind most of the nation on almost every objective measurement of student achievement, funding, teacher qualifications and school facilities. Its student scores on national standardized tests ranks above only Louisiana and Mississippi.

One interesting point was that the decline of California’s K-12 system “began about 30 years ago when the state became the first to implement school finance reform that moved responsibility for school funding from local jurisdictions to the state. The change helped to make spending per pupil more equal across the state. While there is evidence the change narrowed the gap between rich and poor districts, it also contributed to lower spending levels overall.”

That’s something for our legislators to keep in mind as Arkansas goes through the same transition.