Passage of the proposed millage would return to education a fraction of the funds removed by state lawmakers from education. In fact, the proposed millage is necessary because policymakers at the state level have placed a low priority on K-12 education in recent years. Their rhetoric would indicate otherwise, but the numbers portray the facts.

In fiscal years 2001-2003 expenditures from the School Aid Fund (SAF), which is the source of the overwhelming majority of K-12 funding from state government, from state sources equaled 3.66 percent of state personal income.

State personal income is the dominant summary measure of the resources of the state. Economists use this measure as a benchmark, e.g., the consensus revenue reports used in budget planning incorporate this measure. Policymakers use it, e.g., state personal income is embedded in the State Constitution in Article IX, Section 26, which specifies a limit on state revenue.

In FY 2010 school aid from state sources is projected to equal 3.06 percent of state personal income. Note the decline of this relative measure – a percentage – cannot be explained by problems in the general economy. If policymakers had not changed the priority of K-12 education since 2001-2003, the percentage of our state’s resources devoted to it would have remained constant. That is, school aid from state sources would have suffered a slowdown in its growth rate at the same pace as the slowdown in income. What actually occurred was a slowdown in state support for education at a faster pace than the slowdown in the state’s economy, that is, a decrease in the priority given to K-12 education.

Policy makers were, of course, focused on tax relief rather than supporting K-12 education. The benefits to the taxpayers of Washtenaw County were substantial. Because state policy makers chose to reduce SAF expenditures from 3.66 to 3.06 percent of personal income, taxpayers in our county are enjoying tax relief of about $87 million in FY 2010. (The decline in the percentage of personal income going towards education, 0.60 percent, times projected county personal income of $14.5 billion equals $87 million.)

This millage, if passed, will put back into the support of K-12 public education approximately 1/3 ($30 million) of the resources from Washtenaw County that state policymakers chose to shift from education to tax relief. With passage, taxpayers in the county will still have an approximate $57 million remaining in their private hands from state tax relief in K-12 educational spending relative to 2001-2003.

In conclusion, an analysis that takes both local and state taxes into account shows that the taxes in Washtenaw County for the support of K-12 education as a percent of personal income will be substantially lower in FY 2010, even with the passage of the proposed millage, than they were in FYs 2001-2003. With the passage of the millage we can enjoy continued high quality schools and substantial tax relief.