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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE Contact: Dan Sutherland
January 29, 2004 (817) 488-7428

VOTERS RESPOND TO REPRESENTATIVE TRUITT’S
SCHOOL FINANCE SURVEY

Austin, Texas - Voters in Northeast Tarrant County are split on the question of how much of a role Texas state revenues should play to ensure equal funding for public education across the state, but are more unified in their opinions about potential sources for new state tax revenues. These findings are based on a voter survey about public school finance reform and prospective sources for new state revenues conducted by State Representative Vicki Truitt. During the week of November 25, 2003, 28,000 questionnaires were sent to voters in the 98th Legislative District. To date, 1,592 responses have been received (6%).

Survey respondents were asked if state funds should be used to ensure equal funding for students across the state, and almost half (49%) responded yes. Still, just over two in five (41%) disagreed and responded state funds should not be used to ensure equal funding per student across the state.
Among those supporting additional state funding, slightly more than half (53%) felt student performance or student improvement should be used to drive how funds are allocated. At the same time, nearly two-fifths (39%) disagreed.
“Our survey underscores the importance of this subject in the minds of voters in District 98,” said Representative Truitt. “To have nearly 1,600 voters respond to a survey like this is a high level of participation.. And while the results are only an indicator of how the voters feel about this important subject, these results underscore the need to communicate with voters about the crisis of funding confronting our local school districts. I greatly appreciate everyone who took the time to answer the questions and send in their opinions.”
Governor Perry is expected to call the Texas State Legislature into special session by April to resolve public school funding issues resulting from the so called “Robin Hood” system that has been in place for the past 10 years. Under this system, school districts deemed to be “property wealthy” are required to send funds to the state to be used to subsidize districts deemed to be “property poor.” All of the school districts in District 98 are now or soon will be deemed “property wealthy” by the state’s rules.
Survey respondents were also asked about different ways the state might raise additional funds to support the public schools. “Any new funds raised by the state to support our local school districts should result in a significant role back of local property taxes,” said Representative Truitt. “The members of the legislature are not yet sure how to raise new revenues to help fund our schools, but we are sure that current property taxes are unacceptably high and need to be lowered. In fact, 85% of our survey respondents said that property taxes are already too high.”

When asked about potential new sources of revenue, survey respondents were against a state income tax (77% opposed), higher sales tax rates (64% opposed), or a state-wide property tax (57% opposed). Respondents were generally favorable toward taxes on video lottery terminals at race tracks (84% supported), increased alcohol and tobacco taxes (80% supported), stricter qualifications for property tax exemptions (72% supported), closing franchise tax loopholes (69% supported), and expanding sales taxes to include services (52% favored).
“Raising taxes on cigarettes, collecting tax revenues from betting machines at race tracks, and closing some of the existing tax loopholes can help reduce our current funding shortage, but they only scratch the surface of the revenue sources needed to solve the problem,” said Representative Truitt.
Support for other new sources of revenue under consideration was more evenly split. Results were mixed for the potential elimination of sales tax exemptions altogether (46% favored, 37% opposed), a new business activities tax (39% favored, 34 % opposed), or a new gross receipts tax (28% favored, 35% opposed).
“Clearly the legislature has its work cut out for it. But I’m optimistic we can come up with a plan that will help our districts get the current funding crisis under control, continue to improve the quality of the education given to our kids throughout the state, while preserving local control for public education,” said Representative Truitt. “We’ll know a lot more about how we intend to proceed by the end of April.”