Who Is ETPI?
In 1997, a group of Ohio’s school districts came together to form the Education Tax Policy Institute. Now, joined by other local government organizations, the Institute has as its mission to research and analyze changes in taxes that affect funding for education and local services.
The development of sound public policies depends on thorough research and technical analyses of proposed alternatives. ETPI provides managers and policy makers with the ability to acquire data and to project the outcome of tax changes on education funding and on local government resources.
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Electric Deregulation: ETPI's First Major Challenge
The emergence of electric utility deregulation as a public policy issue threatened to cause enormous losses in property tax revenues for schools and local governments. To meet this challenge ETPI:
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Accumulated data about the impact of electric utility property tax reductions; |
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Assisted in the development of constructive revenue replacement procedures; |
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Continues to assist educators and local government officials in the interpretation of the new revenue replacement system enacted by the Ohio General Assembly in Senate Bill 3. |
The assault on the property tax as a source of local funds for education and other services continues. ETPI is analyzing:
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Property tax litigation, including the Duquesne and Columbia Gas cases; |
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A new law phasing out the $700 million inventory tax; |
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School funding litigation that addressed Ohio’s reliance on property taxes as a source of school funds. |
Emerging School Finance and Tax Policy Problems
Erosion of property tax revenues is not the only public finance problem that schools will face in the next few years. ETPI has attempted to anticipate future developments in state & local finances. In April 1999, ETPI sponsored a conference with a "Big Picture" perspective on tax policy. National experts identified future issues which ETPI should follow:
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Revenue losses that will occur as e-commerce undermines the sales tax; |
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Shifts in the economy from goods to services; |
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Property tax "levy fatigue". |
ETPI plans to continue its analysis of the state & local tax system and to work for constructive solutions to maintain local funding bases for schools and other local governments.
Barbara Shaner, President
E-mail: barbara@oasbo-ohio.org
Tom Ash, Vice-President
E-mail: ash@basa-ohio.org
Janice Smith, Treasurer
E-mail: j_smith@osba-ohio.org
Maryse Gonzalez, Secretary
E-mail: m_gonzalez@osba-ohio.org
Bill Driscoll
E-mail: wdriscol@paulbunyan.net
Howard Fleeter
E-mail: hfleeter@ameritech.net