To meet school payroll and other expenses without layoffs or a cap on raises, we will arguably need something in the neighborhood of a 5% tax increase each year.
Unfortunately, very few people are experiencing 5% annual increases in household income.
Over time, that’s a problem.
Take a family earning $150,000 in 2012 paying $15,000 in school taxes. Assume property taxes increase by 5% each year, while household income increases by the national average of 2%.
Here’s what happens in 10 years time:
Year | Household Increases 2%/year |
Total % Change |
School Taxes Increase 5%/year |
Total % Change |
% of Income to School Taxes |
Year 1 | $150,000 | $15,000 | 10% | ||
Year 10 | $182,849 | 22% | $24,433 | 63% | 13% |
In Year 1, this family spends 10% of income on school taxes. Over the next decade taxes rise by a total of 63% while income rises by only 22%, so now this family is spending 13% of household income on school taxes (and their children are taking out loans to pay for college).
When people talk about school spending and taxes being “unsustainable,” this is what they mean. The only way to fund Irvington schools at the level we are funding them is to gentrify: the “big rich” will have to move in, and the “little rich” will have to move out. It seems to me that this process has been taking place for some time now.
The “big poor,” a term coined by my friend D., need to move to Connecticut.
Or Riverdale. #SENDOUT
• compound calculator
• percent change
• division calculator
AND SEE:
• What people who do not have children in the schools pay
…to educate the children of people who do
• How we got here
• 4 is not 2
• Budget vote
• Core Knowledge: curriculum & property values