Education Matters US

A compromise plan for funding schools

Even the most selfish and greedy of parents and school board members who demand the very best for the children must sometimes wonder how retired, fixed-income homeowners can cope with the ever-rising financial demands placed upon them in the interest of education.

No one, and especially the retired, would consider denying the very best education to the future of our nation. The question remains as to how the “very best” should be funded.

Logically, since better education translates into better incomes, the burden should be placed upon the state and a local income tax, but we all know that logic has no place in the thinking of those who have devised and perpetuate the cruel property tax system we now have.

It is never my intent to define an evil without suggesting a solution. As a victim, I have thought about this matter long and hard. What I propose is a compromise that still imposes an undue hardship on the retired, fixed-income homeowner, but one that gives them some relief they may be able to live with and still provides school boards and other taxing bodies with their tax demands.

This is a very simple proposition: After a certain age is reached, perhaps 65 or 70, a long-term homeowner may defer payment of a portion of his property tax. The deferred portion would be charged against his equity, and would be a percentage determined by deducting his/her/their gross income from 100.

If the gross income was $40,000, the deferred percent would be 60. (100-40=60) The deferred amount would be placed in a lien against the property’s equity, and interest would accrue at some determined fixed rate, perhaps 4 percent.

Taxing bodies could then borrow the deferred amount against the property lien. It would resemble a reverse mortgage but without the prohibitive set-up charges that reverse mortgages impose.

I do not for one moment disagree that residential property tax is unfair to low- and medium-income retirees who have most of their equity in their homes. This is simply a plan that permits them to live in their home for a few more years and at the same time meets the demands of the school boards.

Joseph Russell Vannier
Hoffman Estates