Wisconsin Alliance Calls for Increased Sales Tax to Fund Schools

The "Wisconsin Adequacy Plan," a proposal to raise the state sales tax from 5 to 6.2 percent in order to increase the state's share in school funding, was announced on January 16, 2003, by the Wisconsin Alliance for Excellent Schools, a coalition advocating reform of the Wisconsin public-school finance system. Jack Norman, a spokesman for the Wisconsin Alliance and the research director of the Institute for Wisconsin's Future, a policy group, says that the plan, which would be phased in over eight years, would raise $176 million more for schools in the first year alone. Norman added that the plan would be more adequate, equitable, and comprehensible, and less dependent on property taxes, than the current Wisconsin school funding formula. The money raised from the sales tax increase would ensure annual per-pupil funding for every student of $8,500, increasing with inflation, with additional money for special education students and those with limited English proficiency. $8,500 per student is the level of funding found to be adequate by a 2002 Institute for Wisconsin's Future costing-out study.

The Adequacy Plan, however, faces a tough road to adoption by the legislature. Wisconsin, like almost every other state in the Union, has a substantial budget shortfall, and before Governor Jim Doyle releases his budget on February 18, there will be considerable debate on whether services should be cut, taxes should be raised, or both. For now, a spokesman for the governor says, Doyle "does not support any kind of tax increase in the upcoming budget." But, as the budget address draws near, Doyle, like other governors of fiscally strapped states, may find it impossible to hold the line on taxes without gutting the social services that his constituents expect.

Prepared January 21, 2003