With the state legislative session well under way, I am disappointed that lawmakers are once again prioritizing another cut to education-tied income taxes. This goes hand-in-hand with SJR10, the legislature’s joint proposal to voters this November to amend the Utah Constitution to open income taxes up for any spending initiative, with no built-in accountability — thereby decreasing transparency and removing Constitutionally mandated assurances for public education.
If they follow through with their planned tax cut, this will be the third year in a row that the legislature has cut the education-linked income tax rate, despite polls consistently showing that voters prefer a greater investment in education to another tax cut. This plan is by design. After voter pushback in January 2020 following the tax reform that would have cut hundreds of millions of dollars from education by slashing the income tax, the Legislature has maintained its incessant push to lower the education-linked income tax. The lost income tax revenue that was diverted away from education in 2022 and 2023 totals a recurring $371 million, and there is no sign this habit will end.
As school districts grapple with overcrowding in high-growth areas, inflation and unfunded mandates, the cuts they must make to maintain basic operations have real-life impacts. Yet public education continues to get the cold shoulder, even as the legislature funds a $42 million scholarship pool toward private schools using those same income tax funds.
The Constitution-backed tradition of dedicating income tax dollars to public education dates back to 1946. But some, including supporters of SJR10, are popularizing the idea that the income tax should be zero. This overhaul of how Utah public education is financed would result in a higher sales tax or, more likely, a greater fixed monthly house payment as school districts are forced to raise property taxes — or “levy capital” — to address funding deficits. Swapping income tax for property tax will likely shrink the middle class, as more working Americans are squeezed off the cliff into poverty, because property taxes hurt the poor and middle class the most.
Property tax is relentless. You can’t pay it off with your mortgage. It doesn’t retire when you do. It persists, without regard for a fixed income, job loss, health or disability. As home values rise and property taxes increase, the retired and elderly on a fixed income often find themselves trapped in an unaffordable situation.
For prospective first-time homebuyers, the effects of replacing income tax with property tax are equally grim. As investors forward property tax increases on to their renters, rent inflation pushes the American Dream of saving for a home further out of reach. Sales taxes rise to make up lost revenue from income taxes, and families are left with fewer and fewer corners to cut as they chip away at basic needs to make ends meet. These dire circumstances can lock families into eternal renting or even push them into homelessness.
On the other hand, an income tax is forgiving, easing with job loss and gaining with income growth. It expands and contracts with you, in consideration of your prosperity. What is sometimes described as a “volatile” revenue source by lawmakers is viewed as a mercy when examining the bank accounts of families hit with hard times.
Funding public education with income tax dollars is the best policy to keep the most families in the middle class. But the Legislature’s pattern of continually whittling away at these education funds with annual tax cuts threatens the vision our forebears had when they safeguarded statewide education funding in our Constitution by dedicating income taxes to public schools.
Similarly, SJR10 should be recognized by voters for what it is: a strategic step toward the end goal of replacing income tax-funded education with property tax, which places a greater burden on low- and middle-income families.
Stop the tax cuts at the expense of education. Stop the progression from adaptable income tax to dogged property tax. It’s time we tell our Legislature, “Enough is enough.”
Carly Ferrin
Carly Ferrin is a mother of two in the public school system. She serves as a School Community Council member, volunteers in the classroom on a regular basis and is helping to organize a new grassroots group called Utah Advocates for Public Education. She is deeply grateful to her children’s amazing schoolteachers.
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