Rockefeller the Educator

New York's Governor Nelson Rockefeller (we might as well be precise, since he is just another governor now) is currently backing a proposal which would permit non-property taxes at the local level as a supplement to current property taxes and to state grants for education. His argument, stated in simple terms, is that property owners will not take many more rises in the mil rate, and that no one likes a rise in State taxes. Hence, sales taxes or a surcharge on state income taxes is needed to meet the rising costs of schools.

On this issue, Rockefeller seems to have again beaten New York Democrats to the punch. In widely-read books, Professor Galbraith and President Emeritus Conant have pointed out the need for a revolution in local taxation for years now; but Governor Rockefeller has at last marshalled sizable support for taxation which involves local responsibility and reckons with the excessive amount of income families spend on consumer goods.

Arguments against the bill have centered largely on doubts as to whether school boards--even at a county-wide level--can be trusted with powers of taxation. School board members tend to be "yes" men for school principals, so runs the argument, and thus qualify as spenders rather than savers. Curiously--perhaps not so curiously when one considers that they are out of power--New York Democrats seem to have become the party of "economy."

Although Rockefeller's federated school district plan has not yet been fully outlined, it clearly looks in the direction of a solution to school financing problems in states besides New York. Education, which takes up the largest part of most town budgets, usually finds itself at the mercy of a town's conservative elements--property owners who have no children and must bear the brunt of bond issues and tax rises. Whether in state or local taxes, specialized groups in society bear the major part of the educational burden.

Since education is related to society's needs, federal and state aid should and will be forthcoming to equalize large disparities in the quality of education. On the other hand, education is also a local responsibility--sales taxes by school boards bring home the cost of education to each citizen and increase the power and responsibility of his immediate representatives, the school board.

Rockefeller's bill will not easily overcome various pressures in the legislature. Democrats are using his stand as a weapon in a forthcoming Nassau County election. Other opposition has come mainly from counties who have thought themselves able to finance education without raising local taxes, who have turned down bond issues repeatedly. Significantly, however, opposition to educational spending has reversed its field. Where once "federal" control was the bugaboo, in New York it seems that "local" control is the danger. Fortunately, this is a difficult point to prove.