This means that they should have alternative sales taxes imposed. These small increases will result in school districts receiving more income. As the legislature can avoid making dramatic cuts backs from the general fund and will have another source of revenues. This will improve their ability to provide educators with the resources they need. (Balu, 2011)
A good example of this can be seen with a study that was conducted by Balu (2011). She found that this formula has been successful in helping to ensure that school districts are receiving additional financing. Commenting about these shifts, she concluded that this will prevent sudden decreases by introducing another form of revenues for education with her saying, "Districts in states that shifted their tax base for education toward sales and income taxes, received more than 60% of their revenues from the state. They experienced an increase in revenue stability after finance equalization reform was adopted." (Balu, 2011) This is showing how changes in the way revenues are collected can improve the kinds of equality in the funding school districts are receiving.
As a result, a change must occur in the formula that utilized to determine how revenues and other sources of income are distributed among educational institutions. This means that there must be shifts in the way they are collected and distributed. In many situations, this will require having wealthier districts contributing more of their income from the mill levy to a general fund. These amounts will be distributed equally among the various schools. (Toutkoushian, 2008) (Balu, 2011)
At the same time, the state must have a shift in the sources of revenues. This means passing on any kind of increases to other areas such as sales taxes. These transformations will allow the state of New Jersey to keep the mill levy rate of 2.5%. While at the same time, any kind of short falls can be split among small increases in sales taxes. If this can occur, the schools will receive their funding from specific areas other...
These elements will prevent any kind of sudden decreases in spending over the long-term and ensure that all districts receive the resources they require. (Balu, 2011)
The characteristics and function of a fair, equitable and adequate tax system.
The characteristics of an equitable tax system are to ensure that the different areas of government are providing similar levels on a percentage basis. This means that the school system must receive revenues that are divided equally among each of these segments. When this occurs, there will be more stability in their funding and they can provide a quality education to various stakeholders in the process. (Toutkoushian, 2008) (Balu, 2011) (Crawford, 2010) (Goodspeed, n.d.)
As a result, the basic function of this kind of system is to prevent any kind of sudden changes in assistance from an overreliance on a single entity. Instead, there must be a strategy that will prevent these shifts by having alternate forms of financing and creating more between wealthy and poorer school districts. One possible approach is to change the formula from the mill levies by placing the funds in a pool (which will be divided equally). This will ensure that there is greater stability in financing and preventing some districts from facing sudden shocks because of adverse changes in the economy. (Toutkoushian, 2008) (Balu, 2011) (Crawford, 2010) (Goodspeed, n.d.)
References
Balu, R. (2011). Did School Finance Equalization Increase Revenue Instability. SREE. Retrieved from: https://www.sree.org/conferences/2011/program/downloads/abstracts/159.pdf
Crawford, C. (2010). Property Taxes in New Jersey. Northeast Business and Economic Association.
Goodspeed, T. (n.d.). The Relationship Between State Income Taxes and Local Property Taxes. National Tax Journal, 2 (2), 219 -- 236.
Toutkoushian, R. (2008). The Impacts of School Funding. Journal of Education Finance, 33 (4), 353 --…
